title: Probing Collective Motions of Terminally Anchored Polymers
abstract: Polymer chains attached by one end to an impenetrable surface at high coverage exemplify a tethered layer of mesoscopic dimensions. At equilibrium, thermal fluctuations of the segment density profile of the brushlike layer reflect the tethered chain dynamics; the probing of these fluctuations by evanescent-wave dynamic light scattering is reported. By utilizing a set of terminally attached layers with thicknesses (L0) from 45 to 130 nanometers, it was found that there is a preferred wavelength of order L0 of these fluctuations with a concurrent slowing down of their thermal decay rate. This technique could open the route for the investigation of the largely unexplored area of polymer surface dynamics.
authors.affiliation: Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, P.O. Box 1527, 711 10 Heraklion, Crete, Greece.
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fytas
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Anastasiadis
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Seghrouchni
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vlassopoulos
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Factor
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Theobald
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Toprakcioglu