title: Novel self-organization mechanism in ultrathin liquid films: theory and experiment.
abstract: When an ultrathin metal film of thickness h (<20 nm) is melted by a nanosecond pulsed laser, the film temperature is a nonmonotonic function of h and achieves its maximum at a certain thickness h*. This is a consequence of the h and time dependence of energy absorption and heat flow. Linear stability analysis and nonlinear dynamical simulations that incorporate such intrinsic interfacial thermal gradients predict a characteristic pattern length scale Lambda that decreases for h>h*, in contrast to the classical spinodal dewetting behavior where Lambda increases monotonically as h2. These predictions agree well with experimental observations for Co and Fe films on SiO2.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, USA.
authors.forename: Justin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trice
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Favazza
authors.forename: Dennis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Hernando
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Ramki
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kalyanaraman
authors.forename: Radhakrishna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sureshkumar