In situ characterization of buckling dynamics in silicon microribbon on an elastomer substrate

Buckling of rigid thin films on elastomer substrates underlies the fabrication foundation of stretchable soft electronics. Here we demonstrate an optical approach to in situ characterize the buckling of silicon microribbon driven by releasing the pre-stretched poly-dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrate at a controllable strain rate. The method, based on quantitative differential interference microscopy, directly captures the space–time evolution of...