Simulating Thermal Effects in the Dewetting of Liquid Metal Nanostructures

This talk focuses on the role of thermal effects in the dewetting of liquid metal nanostructures deposited on thermally conductive substrates, and heated by an external heat source. We consider regimes where in-plane heat transfer is relevant in the underlying substrate. Using asymptotic analysis we develop a mathematical model that simultaneously incorporates thermal effects in the metals, heat transfer in the substrate, and the evolution of the metallic nanostructures. By developing a 3D GPU code that solves the underlying model we are able to simulate self-consistently free-surface evolution and heat conduction on large domains. We focus in particular on the case of a filament surrounded by localized pillars, and show that the presence of pillars may lead to melting and breakup of the filament. Pillar size, location, and positioning are found to be important control parameters for filament heating and may result in full, partial, or asymmetrical dewetting.