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Part of a talk entitled "Buckles, Creases & Wrinkles in Shell Structures and Soft Materials" by Professor John W. Hutchinson at a meeting of the Royal Society of London on the occasion of Huthinson's induction into the Royal Society as a Fellow (2012). Hutchinson writes:
"Soft materials such as elastomers (compliant rubber-like materials) and gels have become an important area of study with many applications. A soft material usually responds to compression by undergoing surface wrinkling or creasing. When a thin stiff film is attached to a thick substrate of soft material, highly regular wrinkle patterns form when the system is subject to in-plane compression, as illustrated on the left in the figure below. The wavelength of the wrinkles is typically ten to twenty times the film thickness and thus wavelengths in the nano- to micro-meter range can be readily produced. Moreover, the wrinkle patterns can be manipulated by altering the level and direction of compression, and efforts are underway to control and exploit these patterns for various applications."
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