  We report on how the relaxation of patterns prepared on a thin film can be
controlled by manipu- lating the symmetry of the initial shape. The validity of
a lubrication theory for the capillary-driven relaxation of surface profiles is
verified by atomic force microscopy measurements, performed on films that were
patterned using focused laser spike annealing. In particular, we observe that
the shape of the surface profile at late times is entirely determined by the
initial symmetry of the perturba- tion, in agreement with the theory. Moreover,
in this regime the perturbation amplitude relaxes as a power-law in time, with
an exponent that is also related to the initial symmetry. The results have
relevance in the dynamical control of topographic perturbations for
nanolithography and high density memory storage.
