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Dewetting of polystyrene films on a silicon substrate is investigated as a function of film thickness h. We observe the nucleation of holes in the early stage of dewetting for relatively thick films (h>100), as observed previously, but the breakup of thinner films occurs through the growth of uniformly distributed surface undulations (``spinodal dewetting''). The average amplitude of these undulations increases exponentially up to the film rupture point where becomes comparable to h, as predicted by a capillary wave instability model.
Xie et al. (Mon,) studied this question.