Eur. Phys. J. Special Topics 192, 195-205 (2011)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2011-01374-6

Regular Article

Receding contact lines: From sliding drops to immersion lithography

¹ Physics of Fluids Group, University of Twente, The Netherlands
² ASML BV, Veldhoven, The Netherlands
³ Laboratoire MSC, Université Paris Diderot, France

^a e-mail: k.g.winkels@utwente.nl

Received: 21 January 2011
Revised: 25 January 2011
Published online: 9 March 2011

Abstract

Instabilities of receding contact lines often occur through the formation of a corner with a very sharp tip. These dewetting structures also appear in the technology of Immersion Lithography, where water is put between the lens and the silicon wafer to increase the optical resolution. In this paper we aim to compare corners appearing in Immersion Lithography to those at the tail of gravity driven-drops sliding down an incline. We use high speed recordings to measure the dynamic contact angle and the sharpness of the corner, for varying contact line velocity. It is found that these quantities behave very similarly for Immersion Lithography and drops on an incline. In addition, the results agree well with predictions by a lubrication model for cornered contact lines, hinting at a generic structure of dewetting corners.