Viscoelastic dewetting of a polymer film on a liquid substrate

The Dewetting of thin polymer films (60-300 nm) on a non-wettable liquid substrate has been studied in the vicinity of their glass transition temperature. In our experiment, we observe a global contraction of the film while its thickness remains uniform. We show that, in this case, the strain corresponds to simple extension, and we verify that it is linear with the stress applied by the surface tension. This allows direct measurement of the stress/strain response as a function of time, and thus permits the measurement of an effective compliance of the thin films. It is, however, difficult to obtain a complete viscoelastic characterization, as the short time response is highly dependant on the physical age of the sample. Experimental results underline the effects of residual stress and friction when dewetting is analyzed on rigid substrates.