Identification of the seeding mechanism in the spinodal instability of dewetting liquids

Calculations and simulations have shown that substrate roughness can replace capillary waves in seeding spinodal dewetting. A typically larger amplitude and a steady nature compared to the transitory one of capillary waves allow us to conclude that, contrary to the common view, substrate roughness is the prevailing seed of the spinodal instability. The consequence of our statement is that spinodal dewetting loses most of its stochastic nature and becomes, in principle, a process that can be tuned by engineering substrate roughness.