VISCOELASTICITY OF THE ONION PHASE

We studied the viscoelasticity of two lyotropic lamellar systems prepa red in the so-called ''onion phase''. This state consists of monodispe rse multilamellar vesicles filling up space. The elastic (G') modulus is measured as a function of the frequency in the linear regime (small amplitude of the oscillations) for different onion sizes and characte ristic distances between membranes. The results are interpreted in ter ms of the elastic deformation of smectic beads.