title: Desorption to delamination: dynamics of detachment in a colloidal thin film.
abstract: Colloidal thin films of varying rigidity detaching from a substrate under an electric field induced stress are studied by video microscopy. For soft films, the process of detachment shows single-particle dynamics, analogous to desorption. For rigid films, a collective delamination spanning hundreds of particles occurs. A competition among the rigidity of the film, the interaction with the substrate, and the external stress leads to a correlation length over which the film delaminates at a critical stress. The phenomenon is described as a dynamical transition in a disordered elastic medium.
authors.affiliation: Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Homi Bhabha Road, Mumbai 400-005, India.
authors.forename: Atul
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Varshney
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sane
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya