Abstract
The instability of a thin liquid film on a solid surface is studied both by molecular dynamics simulations (MD) and a stochastic thin-film equation (STF), which models thermal fluctuations with white noise. A linear stability analysis of the STF allows us to derive a power spectrum for the surface fluctuations, which is quantitatively validated against the spectrum observed in MD. Thermal fluctuations are shown to be critical to the dynamics of nanoscale films. Compared to the classical instability mechanism, which is driven by disjoining pressure, fluctuations (a) can massively amplify the instability, (b) cause the fluctuation wavelength that is dominant to evolve in time (a single fastest-growing mode does not exist), and (c) decrease the critical wavelength so that classically stable films can be ruptured.
- Received 6 March 2019
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.100.023108
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.
Published by the American Physical Society