Casimir Forces

Theory

red ball"On the attraction between two perfectly conducting plates,"

H.B.G. Casimir, Proc. K. Ned. Akad. Wet. 51, 793 (1948)

yellow ball Quantum fluctuations of electromagnetic field in the vacuum between leads to an attractive force between perfect mirrors

        

red ball"The Theory of Molecular Attractive Forces Between Solids,"

E.M. Lifshitz, Soviet Physics 2, 73 (1956),

yellow ball Generalizes the result by considering fluctuating current sources in the bodies.

Experiment

red ballThe era of high precision tests, made possible by advent of scanning microscopy:

yellow ball "Demonstration of the Casimir Force in the 0.6 to 6µm Range," (using a torsion pendulum)

S.K. Lamoreaux, Phys. Rev. Lett. 78, 5 (1997)

   

yellow ball  "Precision Measurements of the Casimir Force from 0.1 to 0.9µm," (using atomic force microscopy)

U. Mohideen and A. Roy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 4549 (1998) (offline)

yellow ball   Many other groups ....

Applications

red ball Important in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS): micron-scale metallic machines

MEMmite         failOring

yellow ball  "Quantum Mechanical Actuation of Microelectromechanical Systems by the Casimir Force,"

 H. B. Chan, V. A. Aksyuk, R. N. Kleiman, D. J. Bishop, Federico Capasso, Science 291, 1941 (2001)

   

red ball  Stiction due to the attractive Casimir force is a challenge to design and operation of MEMs

yellow ball  "The role of the Casimir effect in the static deflection and stiction of membrane strips in MEMS,"

 F. Michael Serry, Dirk Walliser, and G. Jordan Maclay, J. Appl. Phys. 84, 2501 (1998)

yellow ball  "Stiction, adhesion energy, and the Casimir effect in micromechanical systems,"

 E. Buks and M. L. Roukes, Phys. Rev. B 63, 033402 (2001)

red ball Reducing/removing Casimir attraction is of technological value:

yellow ball Can Casimir forces be weakened or made repulsive? [Scientific American]