Related papers: Critical Thickness in Dewetting Films
The spreading of a thin film of suspension on a spinning disk and the accompanying contact line instability is studied through flow visualization experiments. The critical radius for the onset of instability shows an increase with increase…
The tribology of a bubble rubbing on a solid surface is studied via interferometry. A unique experimental setup is designed for monitoring the thickness profiles of a wetting film, intercalated between the bubble and hydrophilic glass…
Switchable and adaptive substrates emerged as valuable tools for the control of wetting and actuation of droplet motion. Here we report a computational study of the dynamics of an unstable thin liquid film deposited on a switchable…
Tear film rupture on the corneal surface plays a critical role in ocular health and visual comfort. Conventional theoretical approaches often idealize the cornea as a perfectly smooth surface, ignoring the surface roughness that are…
We investigate the relaxation of rectangular wrinkled thin films intrinsically containing an initial strain gradient. A preferential rolling direction, depending on wrinkle geometry and strain gradient, is theoretically predicted and…
Practical applications of nanocrystalline metallic thin films are often limited by instabilities. In addition to grain growth, the thin film itself can become unstable and collapse into islands through solid-state dewetting. Selective…
We study universality in the kinetics of spinodal phase separation in unstable thin liquid films, via simulations of the thin film equation. It is shown that in addition to morphology and free energy,the number density of local maxima in…
We discuss instabilities of fluid films of nanoscale thickness, with a particular focus on films where the destabilising mechanism allows for linear instability, metastability, and absolute stability. Our study is motivated by nematic…
Mechanically quenching a thin film of smectic-C liquid crystal results in the formation of a dense array of thousands of topological defects in the director field. The subsequent rapid coarsening of the film texture by the mutual…
We study the deformation of nano--scale polymer films which are subject to external bending forces by means of computer simulation. The polymer is represented by a generalized bead--spring--model, intended to reproduce characteristic…
Classical rupture is attributed to molecular (van der Waals) forces acting at nanometric thicknesses. Nonetheless, micron-thick liquid sheets routinely perforate far above the scale where these molecular forces act, yet the mechanism that…
The displacement of a suspension of particles by an immiscible fluid in a capillary tube or in a porous media is a canonical configuration that finds application in a large number of natural and industrial applications, including water…
The present work is essentially focused on the study of optical and structural properties of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films (a-Si:H) prepared by radio-frequency cathodic sputtering. We examine separately the influence of hydrogen…
A molecular-dynamics type simulation method, which is suitable for investigating the dewetting dynamics of thin and viscous liquid layers, is discussed. The efficiency of the method is exemplified by studying a two-parameter depinning-like…
Thin films, bubbles and membranes are central to numerous natural and engineering processes, i.e., in thin-film solar cells, coatings, biosensors, electrowetting displays, foams, and emulsions. Yet, the characterization and an adequate…
Surfactant-laden thin liquid films overlaid on solid substrates are encountered in a variety of industrial and biological settings. As these films reach submicron thickness, they tend to become unstable owing to the influence of long-range…
Motivated by recent realizations of Dy$_{2}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ and Ho$_{2}$Ti$_{2}$O$_{7}$ spin ice thin films, and more generally by the physics of confined gauge fields, we study a model of spin ice thin film with surfaces perpendicular to…
Dynamics of a thin dewetting liquid film on a vertically oscillating substrate is considered. We assume moderate vibration frequency and large (compared to the mean film thickness) vibration amplitude. Using the lubrication approximation…
Nanocomposites made of polymer films embedding silver nanoparticles were prepared by thermal annealing of poly-(vinyl) alcohol films containing AgNO3. Low (2.5% w:w) and high (25% w:w) doping concentration of silver nitrate were considered…
The fluid dynamics of the classical dewetting instability in ultrathin films is a non-linear process. However, the physical manifestation of the instability in terms of characteristic length and time scales can be described by a linearized…