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Updated: Mar 12, 2026

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Capillary Leveling of Freestanding Liquid Nanofilms
Mark Ilton1, Miles M P Couchman1, Cedric Gerbelot2
1Department of Physics & Astronomy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada.
Abstract:
We report on the capillary-driven leveling of a topographical perturbation at the surface of a freestanding liquid nanofilm. The width of a stepped surface profile is found to evolve as the square root of time. The hydrodynamic model is in excellent agreement with the experimental data. In addition to exhibiting an analogy with diffusive processes, this novel system serves as a precise nanoprobe for the rheology of liquids at interfaces in a configuration that avoids substrate effects.
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