Related papers: Origin of undesirable cracks during layer transfer
A transient surface instability is reported in thin nematic films of 5CB and 8CB, occurring near the nematic-isotropic phase transition. Although this instability leads to patterns reminiscent of spinodal dewetting, we show that it is…
We study the thermodynamical properties of crystals of trapped ions which are laser cooled to two different temperatures in two separate regions. We show that these properties strongly depend on the structure of the ion crystal. Such…
The manufacture of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) involves fabrication of a multilayer ceramic structure, for which constrained sintering is a key processing step in many cases. Defects are often observed in the sintered structure, but…
It is shown that a smooth metal film (or a plasma layer) can be made transparent for an electromagnetic wave when two identical subwavelength diffraction gratings are placed on both sides of the film. The electromagnetic wave transmission…
In this work, we experimentally investigate the gradient stress (sigma1) in 128 deg Y-cut transferred thin film lithium niobate (TFLN) films with thicknesses from 100 to 460 nm using cantilever curvature analysis. The results reveal a…
Crack formation is conventionally described as a nucleation phenomenon despite the fact that the temperatures necessary to overcome the nucleation barrier are far too high. In this paper we consider the possibility that cracks are created…
Cracking and peeling of a layer of clay on desiccation has been simulated using a spring model. A vertical section through the layer with finite thickness is represented by a rectangular array of nodes connected by linear springs on a…
We introduce a direct (Seebeck) and inverse (Peltier) thermoelectric effect induced by electron tunneling between closely separated conducting films. When a transverse temperature gradient is applied along one of two films, a bias voltage…
Thin liquid films with floating active protein machines are considered. Cyclic mechanical motions within the machines, representing microscopic swimmers, lead to molecular propulsion forces applied to the air-liquid interface. We show that,…
The irreversible growth of thin films under far-from-equilibrium conditions is studied in $(2+1)-$dimensional strip geometries. Across one of the transverse directions, a temperature gradient is applied by thermal baths at fixed…
We report a direct observation of the microscopic origin of the bipolar resistive switching behavior in nanoscale titanium oxide films. Through a high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, an analytical TEM technique using…
We report a novel mode of oscillatory crack propagation when a cutting tip is driven through a thin brittle polymer film. The phenomenon is so robust that it can easily be reproduced at hand (using CD packaging material for example).…
We present the first microscopic images of the prewetting transition of a liquid film on a solid surface. Pictures of the local coverage map of a helium film on a cesium metal surface are taken while the temperature is raised through the…
A thin water film on a cleaved mica substrate undergoes a first order phase transition between two values of film thickness. By inducing a finite evaporation rate of the water, the interface between the two phases develops a fingering…
Experiments have investigated shape changes of polymer films induced by asymmetric swelling by a chemical vapor. Inspired by recent work on the shaping of elastic sheets by non-Euclidean metrics [Y. Klein, E. Efrati, and E. Sharon, Science…
Superconductivity realized in bilayer nickelate thin films enables direct spectroscopic and transport studies at ambient pressure. However, a persistent two-step resistive transition remains a major barrier to achieving optimal…
Clays and micas are receiving attention as materials that, in their atomically thin form, could allow for novel proton conductive, ion selective, osmotic power generation, or solvent filtration membranes. The interest arises from the…
A sudden drop in mechanical friction, between an adsorbed nitrogen monolayer and a lead substrate, occurs when the lead passes through the superconducting transition temperature. We attribute this effect to a sudden drop at the…
In semiconductor manufacturing processes, silicon dioxide films are commonly used as barrier layers, insulating layers, and protective layers. Coherence scanning interferometry (CSI) offers thin film thickness measurements with a…
Graphene is only one atom thick and becomes the ultimate thin film to explore membrane physics and mechanics. Here we study hierarchy of graphene wrinkles induced by thermal strain engineering and demonstrate that the wrinkling hierarchy…