Dewetting of thin polymer films near the glass transition -: art. no. 196101

Dewetting of ultrathin polymer films near the glass transition exhibits unexpected front morphologies [G. Reiter, Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 186101 (2001)]. Here, we present the first theoretical attempt to understand these features, focusing on the shear-thinning behavior of these films. We analyze the profile of the dewetting film, and characterize the time evolution of the dry region radius, R-d(t), and of the rim height, h(m)(t). After a transient time, depending on the initial thickness, h(m)(t) grows like roott while R-d(t) increases like exp(roott) . Different regimes of growth are expected, depending on the initial film thickness and experimental time range.