Capillary Leveling of Freestanding Liquid Nanofilms. Author Mark Ilton, Miles Couchman, Cedric Gerbelot, Michael Benzaquen, Paul Fowler, Howard Stone, Elie Raphaël, Kari Dalnoki-Veress, Thomas Salez Publication Year 2016 Type Journal Article Abstract We report on the capillary-driven leveling of a topographical perturbation at the surface of a freestanding liquid nanofilm. The width of a stepped surface profile is found to evolve as the square root of time. The hydrodynamic model is in excellent agreement with the experimental data. In addition to exhibiting an analogy with diffusive processes, this novel system serves as a precise nanoprobe for the rheology of liquids at interfaces in a configuration that avoids substrate effects. Journal Phys Rev Lett Volume 117 Issue 16 Pages 167801 Date Published 2016 Oct 14 ISSN Number 1079-7114 DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.167801 Alternate Journal Phys Rev Lett PMID 27792365 PubMedGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML