X-ray Reflectivity Studies of Solid Supported Model Biomembranes DISSERTATION zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.) vorgelegt von M. Sc. (Hons.) Monika Khurana Geboren am 03.08.1979 In Muktsar, Indien eingereicht beim Fachbereich Chemie der Universität Dortmund Dortmund 2006 Erstgutachter: Prof. Dr. R. Winter Zweitgutachter: Prof. Dr. J. P. Pohl Tag der mündlichen Prüfung 29.03.06 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. R. Winter for his constant support and guidance throughout my PhD work. It is indeed an honor to have carried out my doctoral research under his supervision. I am also thankful to him for introducing me to the field of model biomembranes. My special thanks to Dr. C. Czeslik for creative guidance, invaluable help and friendly discussions during the work. He has been the best teacher and role model I could hope for. I thank Prof. J. P. Pohl and Dr. C. Czeslik for being in my examination committee. I wish to thank Dr. O. Seeck (HASYLAB, Hamburg) and Dr. T. Geue (Paul Scherrer Institute, Switzerland) for giving me the permission to perform my experiments at their beamlines and help for the data evaluation. I thank Prof. P. L.-G. Chong, (Department of Biochemistry, Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) for providing the PLFE lipid. I am also grateful to my teachers Dr. P.