title: Stability of soap films: hysteresis and nucleation of black films.
abstract: We study the stability of soap films of a nonionic surfactant under different applied capillary pressures on the film. Depending on the pressure, either a thick common black film (CBF), or a micro-scopically thin Newton black film (NBF) is formed as a (metastable) equilibrium state, with a first-order (discontinuous) transition between the two. Studying the dynamics of the CBF-NBF transition, it is found that under certain conditions a hysteresis for the transition is observed: for a given range of pressures, either of the two states may be observed. We quantify the nucleation process that is at the basis of these observations both experimentally and theoretically.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 Rue Lhomond, F-75231 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Valeria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Casteletto
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cantat
authors.forename: Dipak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sarker
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bausch
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bonn
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Meunier