277 research outputs found
Collective charge fluctuations and Casimir interactions for quasi one-dimensional metals
We investigate the Casimir interaction between two parallel metallic
cylinders and between a metallic cylinder and plate. The material properties of
the metallic objects are implemented by the plasma, Drude and perfect metal
model dielectric functions. We calculate the Casimir interaction numerically at
all separation distances and analytically at large separations. The
large-distance asymptotic interaction between one plasma cylinder parallel to
another plasma cylinder or plate does not depend on the material properties,
but for a Drude cylinder it depends on the dc conductivity . At
intermediate separations, for plasma cylinders the asymptotic interaction
depends on the plasma wave length while for Drude cylinders
the Casimir interaction can become independent of the material properties. We
confirm the analytical results by the numerics and show that at short
separations, the numerical results approach the proximity force approximation
Comment on "Thermal Lifshitz force between an atom and a conductor with a small density of carriers"
We demonstrate that the generalization of the Lifshitz theory proposed by L.
P. Pitaevskii arXiv:0801.0656 [Phys. Rev. Lett. v.101, 163202 (2008)] violates
the Nernst heat theorem for many dielectric materials and is experimentally
inconsistent.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure; minor revisions are made in accordance with the
text accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Demonstration of optically modulated dispersion forces
We report the first experiment on the optical modulation of dispersion forces
through a change of the carrier density in a Si membrane. For this purpose a
high-vacuum based atomic force microscope and excitation light pulses from an
Ar laser are used. The experimental results are compared with two theoretical
models. The modulation of the dispersion force will find applications in
optomechanical micromachines.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, opex3.sty is used, text has been made in
accordance with the final version to appear in Optics express, 3 misprints
are correcte
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