%0 Journal Article
%T Role of Thermal Fluctuations in Nonlinear Thin Film Dewetting
%A S. Nesic
%A R. Cuerno
%A E. Moro
%A L. Kondic
%J Physics
%D 2015
%I arXiv
%X The spontaneous formation of droplets via dewetting of a thin fluid film from a solid substrate allows for materials nanostructuring, under appropriate experimental control. While thermal fluctuations are expected to play a role in this process, their relevance has remained poorly understood, particularly during the nonlinear stages of evolution. Within a stochastic lubrication framework, we show that thermal noise speeds up and substantially influences the formation and evolution of the droplet arrangement. As compared with their deterministic counterparts, for a fixed spatial domain, stochastic systems feature a smaller number of droplets, with a larger variability in sizes and space distribution. Finally, we discuss the influence of stochasticity on droplet coarsening for very long times.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1505.05478v1