Dewetting of thin polymer films near the glass transition

F. Saulnier; E. Raphael; P. -G. de Gennes

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.196101

paper

Dewetting of thin polymer films near the glass transition

arXiv:cond-mat/0201528 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.196101

Abstract

Dewetting of ultra-thin polymer films near the glass transition exhibits unexpected front morphologies [G. Reiter, Phys. Rev. Lett., 87, 186101 (2001)]. We present here the first theoretical attempt to understand these features, focusing on the shear-thinning behaviour of these films. We analyse the profile of the dewetting film, and characterize the time evolution of the dry region radius, $R_{d} (t)$ , and of the rim height, $h_{m} (t)$ . After a transient time depending on the initial thickness, $h_{m} (t)$ grows like $t$ while $R_{d} (t)$ increases like $exp (t)$ . Different regimes of growth are expected, depending on the initial film thickness and experimental time range.

4 pages, 5 figures Revised version, published in Physical Review Letters: F. Saulnier, E. Raphael and P.-G. de Gennes, Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 196101 (2002)