Pattern Directed Dewetting Studies
Dewetting: Coating techniques such as spin and dip coating of polymer solutions are commonly used to create a thin polymer film on a solid substrate regardless of its wettability. Enhanced chain mobility above the glass transition temperature of the constituent polymer allows the growth of surface instability leading to increasing deformation and even disintegration of such a film (as seen in the image on left).
These random structures can be aligned by template, which includes the use of a topographically or a chemically patterned substrate. Such an approach combines the essential features of top down soft lithography with bottom up self-organization. We create some interesting and complex structure by dewetting under confinement of topographic patterns.