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Science 30 October 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5390, pp. 916 - 919
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5390.916
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Reports

Spinodal Dewetting in Liquid Crystal and Liquid Metal Films

Stephan Herminghaus, * Karin Jacobs, Klaus Mecke, Jörg Bischof, Andreas Fery, Mohammed Ibn-Elhaj, Stefan Schlagowski

Theory predicts that dewetting of a homogeneous liquid film from a solid surface may proceed via unstable surface waves on the liquid. This phenomenon, usually termed spinodal dewetting, has been sought after in many systems. Observations in liquid crystal and liquid metal films showed that, as expected, the emerging structures were similar to those found for spinodal decomposition in mixtures. Certain differences, however, could be attributed to peculiarities of the wetting forces in these two dissimilar systems, thereby demonstrating the role of nonlinearities inherent in the wetting forces.

S. Herminghaus, K. Jacobs, A. Fery, M. Ibn-Elhaj, S. Schlagowski, Max Planck Institute for Colloid and Interface Science, Rudower Chaussee 5, D-12489 Berlin-Adlershof, Germany. K. Mecke, Physics Faculty of the University of Wuppertal, D-42097 Wuppertal, Germany. J. Bischof, Faculty of Physics of the University of Konstanz, Post Office Box 5560, D-78434 Konstanz, Germany.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: herminghaus{at}mpikg.fta-berlin.de

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