Wrinkling of structured thin films via contrasted materials

Abstract

Regular surface patterns induced by the wrinkling of thin films have received intense attention in both science and engineering. We investigate the wrinkling of structured thin films that consist of two types of materials arranged in periodic patterns. A mechanical model is proposed to understand the physics of the wrinkling, and a set of scaling laws for the wrinkle wavelength are obtained. Periodic wrinkles are generated in the local regions of structured films via in-plane contrasted elastic modulus between heterogeneous materials. The wrinkle morphology and location can be tailored by designing structured thin films in a controllable way. Our findings provide the basis for understanding the wrinkling of structured thin films and for the manufacture of regular surface patterns via wrinkling.