BUCKLING INSTABILITY IN MONOLAYER NETWORK STRUCTURES

A buckling instability has been discovered in monolayer network structures. The instability, which can be seen by fluorescence microscopy, occurs when a network formed in the gas liquid-expanded (LE) two-phase region is heated. It is interepreted as an Euler instability that arises because of constraints on the monolayer imposed by the network and by the interactions between domains of the LE phase. An analysis in terms of a Langevin equation with a Ginzburg-Landau free energy shows how the instability is related to the equilibrium and transport properties of the monolayer. © 1990 The American Physical Society.