Dewetting: film rupture by nucleation in the spinodal regime

Abstract

Unstable thin liquid films on solid substrates dewet by hole nucleation on defects or by a linear surface instability (spinodal dewetting). A system with destabilizing short-range and stabilizing long-range molecular interactions is investigated. We show that, for a subrange within the linearly unstable film thickness range, nucleation determines the final structure, whereas spinodal dewetting is of negligible influence. The results are also applicable to the spinodal decomposition of binary mixtures.