Related papers: Instability patterns in ultrathin nematic films: c…
Flow of a thin viscous film down a flat inclined plane becomes unstable to long wave interfacial fluctuations when the Reynolds number based on the mean film thickness becomes larger than a critical value (this value decreases as the angle…
A mathematical model is developed to analyze the growth/decay rate of surface perturbations of an ultrathin metal film on an amorphous substrate (SiO_{2}). The formulation combines the approach of Mullins [J. Appl. Phys. v30, 77, 1959] for…
In vivo and in vitro systems of cells and extra-cellular matrix (ECM) systems are well known to form ordered patterns of orientationally aligned fibers. Here, we interpret them as active analogs of the (disordered) isotropic to the…
We study the critical properties of a two--dimensional Ising model with competing ferromagnetic exchange and dipolar interactions, which models an ultra-thin magnetic film with high out--of--plane anisotropy in the monolayer limit. We…
The behavior of a thin film of nematic liquid crystal with unequal Frank constants is discussed. Distinct Frank constants are found to imply unequal core energies for $+1/2$ and $-1/2$ disclinations. Even so, a topological constraint is…
The two-dimensional oscillatory crack instability, experimentally observed in a class of brittle materials under strongly dynamic conditions, has been recently reproduced by a nonlinear phase-field fracture theory. Here we highlight the…
A soap film, or a flexible membrane without bending and torsional stiffness, that is confined in a cylinder is shown to be susceptible to a surface-tension-driven instability when it is stretched or twisted. This leads to its breakdown and…
We review and compare recent work on the properties of fluctuating interfaces between nematic and isotropic liquid-crystalline phases. Molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations have been carried out for systems of ellipsoids and hard…
We consider a cylindrical film of fluid adhering to a rigid cylinder of fixed radius. The main result is to give the critical (maximum) length for which such a film of given thickness can be stable. The problem is considered both when the…
We consider the steady-state analysis of a pinned elastic plate lying on the free surface of a thin viscous fluid, forced by the motion of a bottom substrate moving at constant speed. A mathematical model incorporating elasticity,…
We study the spreading of viscous drops on a solid substrate, taking into account the effects of thermal fluctuations in the fluid momentum. A nonlinear stochastic lubrication equation is derived, and studied using numerical simulations and…
We study the indentation of ultrathin elastic sheets clamped to the edge of a circular hole. This classical setup has received considerable attention lately, being used by various experimental groups as a probe to measure the surface…
We study the dynamics of small fluctuations about the uniform state of a crystal moving through a dissipative medium, e.g. a sedimenting colloidal crystal or a moving flux lattice, using a set of continuum equations for the displacement…
A spontaneous buckling transition in thin layers of monodomain nematic liquid crystalline gel was observed by polarized light microscopy. The coupling between the orientational ordering of liquid crystalline solvent and the translational…
Liquid crystals are phases of matter intermediate between crystals and liquids. Whereas classical liquid crystals have been known for a long time and are used in electro-optical displays, much less is known about their quantum counterparts.…
We investigate the structure of nematic liquid crystal thin films described by the Landau--de Gennes tensor-valued order parameter with Dirichlet boundary conditions of nonzero degree. We prove that as the elasticity constant goes to zero a…
Compression-induced buckling instability of metal thin films on a compliant base result in surface wrinkles. A stiff thin film, perfectly bonded to an infinitely deep pre-stretched dielectric elastomer (DE) substrate, is considered. Linear…
The translation and shape deformations of a passive viscous Newtonian droplet immersed in an active nematic liquid crystal under circular confinement are analyzed using a linear stability analysis. We focus on the case of a sharply aligned…
The properties of ultrathin films have been studied within the framework of Ising model and the method of random-field interactions. It is shown that the Curie temperature is inversely proportional to the number of layers. Critical exponent…
Active control of wrinkling in soft film-substrate composites using electric fields is a critical challenge in tunable material systems. Here, we investigate the electro-mechanical instability of a soft dielectric film bonded to a…