A team of physicists at UCLA has uncovered a strange and unexpected phenomenon—spiral patterns forming spontaneously on solid surfaces. The discovery, which began with a simple mistake in the lab, is ...

"The thickness of the metal layer, the initial state of mechanical stress of the sample, and the composition of the etching solution all play a role in determining the type of pattern that ...

A lab mistake led to self-forming spiral patterns on metal surfaces, revealing chemical-mechanical interactions.

UCLA doctoral student Yilin Wong left a sample out by mistake. It was a small chip made of germanium, topped with thin layers ...

"The thickness of the metal layer, the initial state of mechanical stress of the sample, and the composition of the etching solution all play a role in determining the type of pattern that ...

To learn more about how the patterns formed, Wong and co-author Giovanni Zocchi, a UCLA physics professor, investigated a system that involved evaporating a 10-nanometer thick layer of chromium on ...