Surface scaling analysis of hydrogels: From multiaffine to self-affine scaling

We show that smoothing of multiaffine surfaces that are generated by simulating a crosslinked polymer gel by a frustrated, triangular network of springs of random equilibrium lengths [G. M. Buendía, S. J. Mitchell, P. A. Rikvold, Phys. Rev. E, 66 (2002) 046119] changes the scaling behavior of the surfaces such that they become self-affine. The self-affine behavior is consistent with recent atomic force microscopy (AFM) studies of the surface structure of crosslinked polymer gels into which voids are introduced through templating by surfactant micelles [M. Chakrapani, S. J. Mitchell, D. H. Van Winkle, P. A. Rikvold, J. Colloid Interface Sci. 258 (2003) 186]. The smoothing process mimics the effect of the AFM tip that tends to flatten the soft gel surfaces. Both the experimental and the simulated surfaces have a non-trivial scaling behavior on small length scales, with a crossover to scale-independent behavior on large scales.