Repulsive Casimir forces between solid materials with high refractive index intervening liquids

Abstract

In order to explore repulsive Casimir/van der Waals forces between solid materials with liquid as the intervening medium, we analyze dielectric data for a wide range of materials as for example PTFE, polystyrene, silica and more than twenty liquids. Although significant variation in the dielectric data from different sources exist, we provide a scheme based on measured static dielectric constants, refractive indices, and applying Kramers Kronig (KK) consistency to dielectric data to create accurate dielectric functions at imaginary frequencies. The latter is necessary for more accurate force calculations via the Lifshitz theory allowing reliable predictions of repulsive Casimir forces.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl