A New Wrinkle in Thin Film Science

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A starburst of wrinkles form in a thin film material when a drop of water is placed on the film as it floats in water. These remarklably simple experiments done with a pool of water in a Petri dish and a low-magnification microscope give researchers ...
A starburst of wrinkles form in a thin film material when a drop of water is placed on the film as it floats in water. These remarklably simple experiments, done with a pool of water in a Petri dish and a low-magnification microscope, give researchers insight into whether the material properties of ultrathin films differ from their properties in bulk quantities. Credit: Jiangshui Huan, University of Massachusetts, Amerherst

Wrinkles are often considered a nuisance, but it turns out that they can reveal fundamental properties of materials, according to University of Massachusetts Amherst scientists.


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