Interaction of colloidal molecules adsorbed on soft solid films

Colloidal molecules adsorbed on soft solid films interact indirectly via el astic substrate deformations. For this substrate mediated attraction force an effective pair potential can be evaluated by using the elasticity theory for solids. The range of the indirect force increases with increasing film thickness. For very soft substrates the interaction is found to be strong enough to influence the structure and the thermodynamic properties of the a dsorbate, e.g. enforce aggregation or crystallization.