Langmuir, Vol.17, No.21, 6553-6559, 2001
Dewetting nucleation centers at soft interfaces
We study the dewetting of a metastable liquid film, squeezed at a solid/rubber interface, induced by defects printed in the solid glass substrate. We have engraved both protruding ("Mesa") and depression ("Vickers prints") defects. For the Vickers prints,we find that a defect of size b dewets films of thickness e < e* = root bh(0), where h(0) is a microscopic "elastic length" (approximate to 100 Angstrom, defined by the ratio of the liquid spreading parameter S by the elastic modulus E of the soft material). The same behavior is observed for thin Mesa. However, for thick Mesa, the dewetting is limited to-the defect area and does not propagate. These results agrees with a theoretical model of nucleation at soft interfaces.