Rather than the typical usage of tensioned thin wires and/or bent rods to make soap film frames, a cleaved and reassembled silicon wafer makes an excellent frame material (albeit fragile!). Additionally, silicon wafer frames can take advantage of standard microfabrication process techniques (not emphasized here, but a rationale for our material choice). When withdrawn vertically from a bath of soap solution, a film is formed in the opening of the wafer and subsequently drains over time. Monochromatic illumination is used to visualize the thickness profile of the film via a pattern of fringes in addition to making the dynamic motion near the borders more visible. Coupling the fringe pattern to a single spectrometer measurement of thickness allows quantification of the entire film thickness profile. Animations of the quantitative analysis are shown alongside video recordings of the soap film withdrawal and drainage.
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