Apparent flexoelectricity in lipid bilayer membranes due to external charge and dipolar distributions

摘要

In this Rapid Communication we show that the interplay between the deformation geometric-nonlinearity andndistributions of external charges and dipoles lead to the renormalization of the membrane’s native flexoelectricnresponse. Our work provides a framework for a mesoscopic interpretation of flexoelectricity and if necessary,nartificially “design” tailored flexoelectricity in membranes. Comparisons with experiments indicate reasonablenquantitative agreement.