Morphological Transitions of Wetting Layers on Structured Surfaces

Abstract

The morphology of wetting layers on structured or imprinted surfaces is determined by the geometry of the underlying surface domains. Droplets which cover a single domain exhibit contact angles which do not satisfy Young's equation. For surface patterns consisting of many surface domains, the wetting layer exhibits several distinct morphologies (homogeneous droplet patterns, heterogeneous droplet patterns, film states) and may undergo morphological transitions between these different states. The latter transitions exhibit spontaneous symmetry breaking.