Related papers: Probing interfacial effects with thermocapillary f…
We investigate the thermocapillary flow in a thin liquid film which is subjected to local heating, in the presence of insoluble surfactants. While surfactant molecules are first advected from warmer to cooler regions, the resulting…
Exploring and controlling the physical factors that determine the topography of thin liquid dielectric films are of interest in manifold fields of research in physics, applied mathematics, and engineering and have been a key aspect of many…
The deformation of a fluid-fluid interface due to the thermocapillary stress induced by a continuous Gaussian laser wave is investigated analytically. We show that the direction of deformation of the liquid interface strongly depends on the…
Thin viscous liquid films driven by capillarity are well described in the lubrication theory through the thin film equation. In this article, we present an analytical solution of this equation for a particular initial profile: a stepped…
Melting is typically viewed as a bulk first-order phase transition that proceeds once nucleation barriers are overcome. Here we demonstrate an interfacially arrested melting regime in molecularly thin crystalline films, where large liquid…
Thin liquid films on surfaces are part of our everyday life, they serve e.g. as coatings or lubricants. The stability of a thin layer is governed by interfacial forces, described by the effective interface potential, and has been subject of…
We report on the effect of intermolecular forces on the fluctuations of supported liquid films. Using an optically-induced thermal gradient, we form nanometer-thin films of wetting liquids on glass substrates, where van der Waals forces are…
The study of viscous thin film flow has led to the development of highly nonlinear partial differential equations that model how the evolution of the film height is affected by different forces. We investigate a model of interaction between…
Thermocapillary convection is particularly effective for the control of thin liquid film topography or for the actuation of microparticles at the liquid-air interface. Experiments with water are challenging, however, as its interface is…
Thin films made of deformable micro- and nano-units, such as biological membranes, polymer interfaces, and particle-laden liquid surfaces, exhibit a complex behavior during drying, with consequences for various applications like wound…
The effects of thermal coupling between two thin liquid layers, separated by a gas layer, are discussed. The liquid layers undergo long-wavelength instabilities driven by gravitational and thermocapillary stresses. To study the dynamics,…
In this paper we review simulation and experimental studies of thermal capillary wave fluctuations as an ideal means for probing the underlying disjoining pressure and surface tensions, and more generally, fine details of the Interfacial…
We measure the isothermal rejuvenation of stable glass films of poly(styrene) and poly(methylmethacrylate). We demonstrate that the propagation of the front responsible for the transformation to a supercooled-liquid state can serve as a…
Flow in thin films is highly dependent on the boundary conditions. Here, we study the capillary levelling of thin bilayer films composed of two immiscible liquids. Specifically, a stepped polymer layer is placed atop another, flat polymer…
Small scale contact between a soft, liquid-coated layer and a stiff surface is common in many situations, from synovial fluid on articular cartilage to adhesives in humid environments. Moreover, many model studies on soft adhesive contacts…
We present experiments to study the relaxation of a nano-scale cylindrical perturbation at one of the two interfaces of a thin viscous free-standing polymeric film. Driven by capillarity, the film flows and evolves towards equilibrium by…
Molecular dynamics simulations of ultrathin water film confined between atomically flat rigid diamond plates are described. Films with thickness of one and two molecular diameters are concerned and TIP4P model is used for water molecules.…
Freezing of dispersions is omnipresent in science and technology. While the passing of a freezing front over a solid particle is reasonably understood, this is not so for soft particles. Here, using an oil-in-water emulsion as a model…
Micron-sized objects confined in thin liquid films interact through forces mediated by the deformed liquid-air interface. This capillary interactions provide a powerful driving mechanism for the self-assembly of ordered structures such as…
In capillary-driven fluid dynamics, simple departures from equilibrium offer the chance to quantitatively model the resulting relaxations. These dynamics in turn provide insight on both practical and fundamental aspects of thin-film…