The lipid bilayer thickness d(L), the transbilayer distance of lipid phosphate groups d(pp/inf> and the lipid surface area A(L) of fluid hydrated bilayers of lamellar phases of egg phosphatidylcholine or dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine containing N-alkyl-N,N-dimethylamine N-oxides (CnNO), 1,4-butanedi-ammonium-N,N'-dialkyl-N,N,N',N'-tetramethyl dibromides (GSn) or mono-hydrochlorides of [2-(alkyloxy)phenyl]-2-(1-piperidinyl)ethylesters of carbamic acid (CnA) were obtained by X-ray diffraction, and the bilayer thickness in extruded unilamellar dioleoylphosphatidylcholine vesicles containing C12NO was obtained by the neutron scattering. The values of d(L), d(pp/inf> and A(L) change linearly up to the 1:1 amphiphile:lipid molar ratio. The slopes of these dependencies increase for d(L) and d(pp/inf> and decrease for AL) with an increasing number of carbons n in the amphiphile long hydrocarbon substituent (18> or =n> or =8 for CnNO, 16> or =n> or =9 for GSn, 12> or =n> or =5 for CnA), while the opposite trends are observed for the short substituent (8> or =n>/=6 for CnNO, 9> or =n> or =7 for GSn, 5> or =n> or =3 for CnA). In case of long substituents, the effects on dL), dpp/inf> and AL) are caused by the decrease in the difference between the lipid and amphiphile hydrocarbon chain lengths and by the increase in their van der Waals attraction. The short substituent amphiphiles are mobile and exchange between multiple binding sites in the bilayer, minimizing the bilayer surface area.