American Physical Society Synopsis December 13, 2018
An international team of researchers (Canada, France) found that for a drop sandwiched between two thin, stretchable films can develop a noncircular outline, such as a square, with its exact shape depending on the amount of tension in the two films. They found that the partial wetting of droplets capped by taut elastic films is highly tunable. Adjusting the tension allows the contact angle and droplet morphology to be controlled. By exploiting these elastic boundaries, droplets can be made elliptical, with an adjustable aspect ratio, and can even be transformed into a nearly square shape. This system can be used to create a stretched and squeezed drop as a tiny lens with adjustable optical properties…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
R. Schulman/McMaster University