Irradiation- and strain-induced self-organization of elastomer surfaces

The appearance of self-organized structures on elastomer surfaces owing to the combined treatment of ionizing radiation and mechanical strain is descr ibed. For example, ion bombardment of stretched elastomer surfaces after su bsequent relaxation of the polymer results in self-organized,undulating sur face topology, whereas the dame surface treatment of a relaxed elastomer sh ows such self-organized topology only under subsequent mechanical deformati on of the elastomer. Surface treatment of one-dimensionally stretched elast omers leads to undulations with wave-vectors oriented parallel to the origi nal,strain direction, while on elastomer surfaces treated in the relaxed st ate undulations with wave-vectors perpendicular oriented to the current str ain direction appear. The period of these self-organized structures can be controlled by the process parameters in the range of some 10 mum down to th e submicrometer scale.