Fig. 1.

A solid meniscus in soft adhesion. a, b Schematic of the experiment at a initial contact and b during quasi-static pull. c–f Raw snapshots of a 17.4-μm-radius sphere adhered to an initially flat, compliant (E = 5.6 kPa) silicone gel substrate as it is pulled quasi-statically from c first contact to f the last measured stable position (scale bar in c: 20 μm). g Mapped deformation profiles (black points) corresponding to (c)–(f), with predictions of classic elastic theory^{17, 18} overlaid at left (red lines), and best-fit constant total curvature surfaces overlaid at right (green lines) (scale bar: 20 μm)