Thin layers of gels with mechanical properties mimicking animal tissues are widely used to study the rigidity sensing of adherent animal cells and to measure forces applied by cells to their substrate with traction force microscopy. The gels are usually based on polyacrylamide and their elastic modulus is measured with an atomic force microscope (AFM). Here we present a simple microfluidic devi...

Elastic scattering of energetic electrons over large angles (in this study 40 keV and 120◦) implies momentum and hence energy transfer from an lectron to a nucleus. Due to the large mass of the nucleus (relative to the mass of an electron) this energy transfer is small, but it has recently been hown that it can be resolved in a modern spectrometer. Hence the elastic peak of an overlayer/substra...

Adhesion-related failures occurs in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) when suspended elastic members unexpectedly stick to their substrates. This type of device failure is one of the dominant sources of yield loss in MEMS. This paper reviews the physical mechanisms responsible for the failure from both the theoretical and practical stand point. In general, the failure requires two different...

Submitted for the MAR11 Meeting of The American Physical Society Motion of Elastic Microcapsules on Compliant Surfaces with Adhesive Ligands EGOR MARESOV, GERMAN KOLMAKOV, ANNA BALAZS, University of Pittsburgh — By integrating mesoscale models for hydrodynamics, micromechanics and adhesion, we examine the fluid driven motion of elastic microcapsules on compliant surfaces. The capsules, modeled ...

Elastic surface waves propagating at the interface between an isotropic substrate and a thin, transversely isotropic film are analyzed. The transverse isotropy is conferred by fibers lying parallel to the interface. A rigorous leading-order model of the thin-film/substrate interface is derived from the equations of three-dimensional elasticity for prestressed, transversely isotropic films havin...