Thin Film

A soap film, draining · spectral render 380–780 nm

Every colour here is light interfering with itself — reflected from the front and back of a film a few hundred nanometres thick. Gravity drains it from the top. Below about thirty nanometres the two reflections cancel and the film turns black: its thinnest, most fragile state.

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Thin Film

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It simulates a draining soap film on the graphics card: a few hundred nanometres of water whose two surfaces reflect light back out of step. As gravity thins the film, its colours run through Newton’s sequence — pale pinks and greens, then blue, magenta, gold and silver — and finally black.

≈ 1 µm0 nm