When a thin water film evaporates from a clean cleaved mica substrate, two films of different thickness can coexist, one of them being stable and the other metastable. As the evaporation proceeds, a phase transition occurs between them. The edge between the two films becomes unstable and the patterns which develop are reminiscent of diffusion-limited solidification and viscous fingering. Experimental results and a theory are presented. The theory suggests that remaining drops evaporate in an unusual manner, whereby the largest drops evaporate fastest. This behavior was confirmed.
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