This work reports on the morphological evolution of an anisotropic, solid, thin wedge on the deformable substrate. Mazed bicrystal films of Au have been grown epitaxially on {001} and {111} Ge substrates by physical vapor deposition. The epitaxial relationships and morphological features of these films were characterized by transmission electron microscopy and diffraction in plan view and cross section. In the course of our study on the kinetics of grain coarsening of Au mazed bicrystal thin films, we observed interesting phenomena at the triple line where a free-standing film encounters a wedge shaped substrate. The morphological effects dictated by the capillary forces at the Au/Ge interface result in a diffusion induced grain boundary migration in the film as well as a retraction of the wedge shaped substrate. The wedge shaped film/substrate geometry is of particular interest as a simple model system for the study of the stability of nonequilibrium configurations. Combination of in situ TEM annealing experiments with FIB specimen preparation resulted in 3-dimensional characterization of the observed morphological changes and enabled us to elucidate the mechanism of the transformation. A direct parallel with the behavior of spreading/retracting of a liquid droplet on a deformable substrate was observed. In the absence of kinetic limitations, capillarity as a driving force acts on two levels: the thin wedge migrates over the large distances in order to decrease overall energy of the system; in addition, rearrangements at the wedge tip result in the establishment of local equilibrium at the triple line. The local equilibrium configuration at the triple junction is strongly influenced by the anisotropic nature of the solids involved. This work is supported by the Director, Office of Energy Research, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-ACO3-76SFOOO98

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