Edge Effects on Growth of Ordered Stress Relief Patterns in Free Sustained Aluminum Films

An unusual form of ordered stress relief patterns is observed in a nearly free sustained aluminum film system deposited on liquid substrates by the thermal evaporation method. The edge effects on the growth of the ordered patterns are systematically studied. It is found that the patterns initiate from the film edges, preexisting ordered patterns, or other imperfections of the film. When the patterns extend in the film regions, they decay gradually and finally disappear. If they develop along the boundaries, however, the sizes are almost unchanged over several millimeters. The stress relief patterns look like rectangular waves in appearance, which are proven to evolve from sinusoidal to triangular waves gradually. The morphological evolution can be well explained by the general theory of buckling of plates.