Achieving a strongly temperature-dependent casimir effect

Alejandro W. Rodriguez, David Woolf, Alexander P. McCauley, Federico Capasso, John D. Joannopoulos, Steven G. Johnson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

We propose a method of achieving large temperature T sensitivity in the Casimir force that involves measuring the stable separation between dielectric objects immersed in a fluid. We study the Casimir force between slabs and spheres using realistic material models, and find large >2nm/K variations in their stable separations (hundreds of nanometers) near room temperature. In addition, we analyze the effects of Brownian motion on suspended objects, and show that the average separation is also sensitive to changes in T. Finally, this approach also leads to rich qualitative phenomena, such as irreversible transitions, from suspension to stiction, as T is varied.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number060401
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume105
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 3 2010
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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