title: Dewetting of a solid monolayer.
abstract: We report on the dewetting of a monolayer on a solid substrate, where mass transport occurs via surface diffusion. For a wide range of parameters, a labyrinthine pattern of bilayer islands is formed. An irreversible regime and a thermodynamic regime are identified. In both regimes, the velocity of a dewetting front, the wavelength of the bilayer island pattern, and the rate of nucleation of dewetted zones are obtained. We also point out the existence of a scaling behavior, which is analyzed by means of a geometrical model.
authors.affiliation: CNRS/Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pierre-Louis
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chame
authors.forename: Yukio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Saito