Substrate thickness: An effective control parameter for polymer thin film buckling on PDMS substrates

Buckling patterns of polymer thin films on plasma-treated poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) substrates were sensitively affected by the thickness of the substrate in addition to the substrate modulus. On highly crosslinked PDMS substrates, the buckling wavelength of polymer thin films sharply increased as the thickness of the substrates were raised and approached a plateau value when the substrate was 2.5 mm-thick. On weakly crosslinked PDMS substrates, the wavelength still increased even when the substrate was thicker than 20 mm. The high dependence of the buckling on the substrate thickness has not been reported before and is unexpected from the current predictions.