Surface stress-driven instabilities of a free film

摘要

We examine the effect of surface stress on the stability of free unconstrained solid films. We first determine the general thermodynamic criteria for film stability. Then, we show that two different morphological instabilities are possible, depending on the sign of the surface stress. The first corresponds to a self-induced Euler buckling mode and the second to an accordionlike wrinkling of the film surfaces. (C) American Institute of Physics.