Buckling Modes of Stiff Thin Films Tuned by the Micro-Patterns on Soft Substrate
Xue Feng (Tsinghua University), Hang Chen (Tsinghua University)
Mechanics of Thin Films and Multilayered Structures
Wed 10:45 - 12:15
Salomon 203
Thin films in buckling configurations can provide powerful tools in many emerging applications such as flexible electronics. For stiff thin films adhering on a flat soft substrate, it’s usually difficult to control the buckling modes. We reported three different buckling modes of Si thin films adhering on a soft PDMS substrate with micropatterns. We employed energy method to analyze the configurations of each modes. It is found that the key factor to control the buckling modes and the transformation between them is the sequence of the critical pre-strains for each mode. Our results not only fundamentally discover the mechanism of buckling modes of thin film on soft substrate but also offer a strategy to control the buckling mode via ‘geometry’ (e.g. micro-patterns) and tune the wavy structure in nanotechnology without extra chemical or physical treatments.