Dielectrophoretic deformation of thin liquid films induced by surface charge patterns on dielectric substrates

We studied the deformation of thin liquid films induced by surface charge patterns at the solid–liquid interface quantitatively by experiments and numerical simulations. We deposited a surface charge distribution on dielectric substrates by applying potential differences between a conductive liquid droplet and a grounded metal plate underneath the substrate that was moved in a pre-defined trajectory. Subsequently, we coated a thin liquid film on the substrate and measured the film thickness profile as a function of time by interference microscopy. We developed a numerical model based on the lubrication approximation and an electrohydrodynamic model for a perfect dielectric liquid. We compared experiments and simulations of the film deformation as a function of time for different charge distributions and a good agreement was obtained. Furthermore, we investigated the influence of the width of the surface charge distribution and the initial film thickness on the dielectrophoretic deformation of the liquid film. We performed a scaling analysis of the experimental and numerical results and derived a self-similar solution describing the dynamics in the case of narrow charge distributions.