Casimir attraction in multilayered plane parallel magnetodielectric systems

A powerful procedure is presented for calculating the Casimir attraction between plane parallel multilayers made up of homogeneous regions with arbitrary magnetic and dielectric properties by use of the Minkowski energy-momentum tensor. The theory is applied to numerous geometries and shown to reproduce a number of results obtained by other authors. Although the various pieces of theory drawn upon are well known, the relative ease with which the Casimir force density in even complex planar structures may be calculated, appears not to be widely appreciated, and no single paper to the author's knowledge renders explicitly the procedure demonstrated herein. Results may be seen as an important building block in the settling of issues of fundamental interest, such as the long-standing dispute over the thermal behaviour of the Casimir force or the question of what is the correct stress tensor to apply, a discussion re-quickened by the newly suggested alternative theory due to Raabe and Welsch.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. Version 2: Updated contact details. Minor changes and correction

Surface Enhanced van der Waals force

We consider the van der Waals interaction of an excited atom and a ground state atom across a vacuum-medium interface under the circumstances of the resonant coupling of the excited atom to a surface polariton mode of the system. We demonstrate that the nonretarded interaction potential between the atoms is in this case the same as in an effective medium described by the average dielectric function of the media in contact except for the different local-field correction factor. The estimate performed for the vacuum-sapphire interface shows that the nonretarded van der Waals (atom*-atom) force can be at the surface mode resonance enhanced by almost three orders of magnitude in comparison with its free-space value. Owing to the local-field effect in the present configuration this enhancement factor is larger then previously estimated for atoms in front of the same medium by (almost) an order of magnitude.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures; presented at CEWQO08, Belgrade, Serbia, 30 May-03 June 200

Medium-modified Casimir forces

We argue that the results for the vacuum forces on a slab and on an atom embedded in a magnetodielectric medium near a mirror, obtained using a recently suggested Lorentz-force approach to the Casimir effect, are equivalent to the corresponding results obtained in a traditional way. We also derive a general expression for the atom-atom force in a medium and extend a few classical results concerning this force in vacuum and dielectrics to magnetodielectric systems. This, for example, reveals that the (repulsive) interaction between atoms of different polarizability type is at small distances unaffected by a (weakly polarizable) medium.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, reinterpreted and revise

Vakuumska sila potpomognuta sredstvom

We discuss some implications of a very recently obtained result for the force on a slab in a planar cavity based on the calculation of the vacuum Lorentz force [C. Raabe and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 71 (2005) 013814]. We demonstrate that, according to this formula, the total force on the slab consists of a medium-screened Casimir force and, in addition to it, a medium-assisted force. The sign of of the medium-assisted force is determined solely by the properties of the cavity mirrors. In the Lifshitz configuration, this force is proportional to 1/d at small distances and is very small compared with the corresponding van der Waals force. At large distances, however, it is proportional to 1/d4 and comparable with the Casimir force, especially for denser media. The exponents in these power laws decrease by 1 in the case of a thin slab. The formula for the medium-assisted force also describes the force on a layer of the cavity medium, which has similar properties. For dilute media, it implies an atom-mirror interaction of the Coulomb type at small and of the Casimir-Polder type at large atom-mirror distances. For a perfectly reflecting mirror, the latter force is effectively only three-times smaller than the Casimir-Polder force.Raspavljamo implikacije nedavno dobivenog rezultata za silu na neku ploču u planarnom rezonatoru baziranom na proračunu vakuumske Lorentzove sile [C. Raabe and D.-G. Welsch, Phys. Rev. A 71 (2005) 013814]. Prema toj formuli, ukupna se sila na ploču sastoji od zasjenjene Casimirove sile i sredstvom potpomognute sile čiji je predznak određen isključivo svojstvima zidova rezonatora. U Lifshitzovoj konfiguraciji, ova sila je proporcionalna 1/d na malim udaljenostima i jako mala u usporedbi s odgovarajućom van der Waalsovom silom. Međutim, na velikim udaljenostima ona je proporcionalna 1/d4 i usporediva s Casimirovom silom, posebno za gušća sredstva u rezonatoru. U slučaju tankog sloja, ova asimptotska ponašanja prelaze u 1/d2 odnosno 1/d5 . Formula za sredstvom potpomognutu silu opisuje također silu na neki sloj sredstva u rezonatoru, koja ima slična svojstva. Za razrijeđena sredstva, ona implicira interakciju atom-zid Coulombovog tipa na malim i Casimir-Polder tipa na velikim udaljenostima. U slučaju idealno reflektirajućeg zida, ova sila je efektivno samo tri puta slabija od Casimir-Polderove sile

Matter-screened Casimir force and Casimir-Polder force in planar structures

Using a recently developed theory of the Casimir force (Raabe C and Welsch D-G 2005 Phys. Rev. A 71 013814), we calculate the force that acts on a plate in front of a planar wall and the force that acts on the plate in the case where the plate is part of matter that fills the space in front of the wall. We show that in the limit of a dielectric plate whose permittivity is close to unity, the force obtained in the former case reduces to the ordinary, i.e., unscreened Casimir-Polder force acting on isolated atoms. In the latter case, the theory yields the Casimir-Polder force that is screened by the surrounding matter.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure -- published online at J. Opt. B on Nov 16 200

Vacuum force on an atom in a magnetodielectric cavity

We demonstrate that, according to a recently suggested Lorentz-force approach to the Casimir effect, the vacuum force on an atom embedded in a material cavity differs substantially from the force on an atom of the cavity medium. The force on an embedded atom is of the familiar (van der Waals and Casimir-Polder) type, however, more strongly modified by the cavity medium than usually considered. The force on an atom of the cavity medium is of the medium-assisted force type with rather unusual properties, as demonstrated very recently [M. S. Tomas, Phys. Rev. A 71, 060101(R) (2005)]. This implies similar properties of the vacuum force between two atoms in a medium.Comment: RevTeX 4, 4 pages, 1 eps figure, corrected and slightly revise

Long-range surface plasmon polariton excitation at the quantum level

We provide the quantum mechanical description of the excitation of long-range surface plasmon polaritons (LRSPPs) on thin metallic strips. The excitation process consists of an attenuated-reflection setup, where efficient photon-to-LRSPP wavepacket-transfer is shown to be achievable. For calculating the coupling, we derive the first quantization of LRSPPs in the polaritonic regime. We study quantum statistics during propagation and characterize the performance of photon-to-LRSPP quantum state transfer for single-photons, photon-number states and photonic coherent superposition states.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, RevTeX4; Accepted versio

Casimir force between designed materials: what is possible and what not

We establish strict upper limits for the Casimir interaction between multilayered structures of arbitrary dielectric or diamagnetic materials. We discuss the appearance of different power laws due to frequency-dependent material constants. Simple analytical expressions are in good agreement with numerical calculations based on Lifshitz theory. We discuss the improvements required for current (meta) materials to achieve a repulsive Casimir force.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, graphicx, v4: Europhysics Letters, in pres

Casimir force on amplifying bodies

Based on a unified approach to macroscopic QED that allows for the inclusion of amplification in a limited space and frequency range, we study the Casimir force as a Lorentz force on an arbitrary partially amplifying system of linearly locally responding (isotropic) magnetoelectric bodies. We demonstrate that the force on a weakly polarisable/magnetisable amplifying object in the presence of a purely absorbing environment can be expressed as a sum over the Casimir--Polder forces on the excited atoms inside the body. As an example, the resonant force between a plate consisting of a dilute gas of excited atoms and a perfect mirror is calculated