Dipalmitoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DDPE) Langmuir films at the air/water interface have been studied. These films exhibit high stability. The resulting films transferred on muscovite have been studied by scanning force microscopy with the contact mode. At the microscopic scale, DDPE Langmuir-Blodgett films appear densely packed with few defects. At molecular resolution the films appear well ordered; the double tail of the lipids has been observed.d Copyright 2000 Academic Press.