Corrugational Instabilities of Thin Copolymer Films

We study the equilibrium configurations of thin films of diblock copolymers, in the strong segregation limit, resting on a flat surface. The top surface is free. Such films are geometrically frustrated and possess an inherent strain. Here we show how this strain induces an undulational instability in the film. The existence of this instability is very sensitive to the chain end distribution within the bilayers, and a macroscopic observation of this instability on a length scale of 1000 {} gives an indication of the chain end distribution on the scale of 5 {}.