Stability of liquid films covered by a carpet of self-propelled surfactant particles

Abstract

We consider a carpet of self-propelled particles at the liquid-gas interface of a liquid film on a solid substrate. The particles excert an excess pressure on the interface and also move along the interface while the swimming direction performs rotational diffusion. We study the intricate influence of these self-propelled insoluble surfactants on the stability of the film surface and show that depending on the strength of in-surface rotational diffusion and the absolute value of the in-surface swimming velocity several characteristic instability modes can occur. In particular, rotational diffusion can either stabilize the film or induce instabilities of different character.