Thin films

Predicting realistic morphologies and molecular organizations from chemical structure is far from easy and indeed has only recently proved doable by atomistic molecular dynamics. The issue is further complicated in thin films, where the material is strongly affected by surface interactions, even if obtaining information on alignment and anchoring is essential to optimize the specific interfacial orientations required for different applications (e.g. Field Effect Transistors, or Organic Solar Cells or Nano-Photonic devices).

The first generation of theories and computer simulations of liquid crystals have made drastic and often contrasting assumptions on the model representation of constituent mesogens and on the type of intermolecular interactions (e.g purely attractive in Maier-Saupe type and purely hard repulsions in Onsager models).

Doping spun-cast films of organic semiconductors with additive and then inducing spherulitic crystallization by solvent-vapor annealing offers a promising means for controlling grain size of the semiconductor films. During solvent-vapor annealing, large-scale crystallization takes place and neighboring spherulites grow until they impinge. The growth rate, as measured by the normal velocity of the propagating boundary of the spherulite, is constant for a given temperature, solvent-vapor pressure, initial additive mole fraction, and substrate.

(Joint work with D. Peschka and A. Muench).

We consider a simple model for line rupture of thin fluid films in
which Trouton viscosity and van-der-Waals forces balance. For this
model there exists a one-parameter family of second kind self-similar
solutions. We establish necessary and sufficient conditions
for convergence to any self-similar solution in a certain parameter regime.
We also present a conjecture on the domains of attraction of all self-similar
solutions which is supported by numerical simulations.

We recently developed a thin film model that
describes the rupture and dewetting of very thin
liquid polymer films where slip at the liquid/solid
interface is very large. In this talk, we investigate
the singularity formation at the moment of rupture
for this model, where we identify different similarity
regimes.

Techniques employed in film editing have evolved rapidly with
increasingly sophisticated and complex methods being used to enhance
storytelling. This talk will examine the relationship between scene and
shot, picture and sound with a discussion of how an understanding of
editing technique can be leveraged to enhance the automated analysis of
film content.

About the Speaker:
John Mateer joined the University of York in 2001 specifically to design
and develop the media production and analysis components of an