Development of a high-sensitivity torsion balance to investigate the thermal Casimir force

We report development of a high-sensitivity torsion balance to measure the thermal Casimir force. Special emphasis is placed on experimental investigations of a possible surface electric force originating from surface patch potentials that have been recently noticed by several experimental groups. By gaining a proper understanding of the actual contribution of the surface electric force in real materials, we aim to undertake precision force measurements to resolve the Casimir force at finite temperature in real metals, as well as in other semiconducting materials, such as graphene.Comment: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference "Quantum Field Theory Under the Influence of External Conditions"; 11 pages and 4 figure

Study of trap states in zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films for electronic applications

The electrical properties of ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition were studied. Field-effect devices with a mobility reaching 1 cm2/V s show non-linearities both in the current–voltage and in the transfer characteristics which are explained as due to the presence of trap states. These traps cause a reversible threshold voltage shift as revealed by low-frequency capacitance–voltage measurements in metal insulator semiconductor (MIS) capacitors. Thermal detrapping experiments in heterojunctions confirm the presence of a trap state located at 0.32 eV