Do you want to publish a course? Click here

Casimir-Polder forces on moving atoms

209   0   0.0 ( 0 )
 Publication date 2009
  fields Physics
and research's language is English




Ask ChatGPT about the research

Polarisable atoms and molecules experience the Casimir-Polder force near magnetoelectric bodies, a force that is induced by quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field and the matter. Atoms and molecules in relative motion to a magnetoelectric surface experience an additional, velocity-dependent force. We present a full quantum-mechanical treatment of this force and identify a generalised Doppler effect, the time delay between photon emission and reabsorption, and the Roentgen interaction as its three sources. For ground-state atoms, the force is very small and always decelerating, hence commonly known as quantum friction. For atom and molecules in electronically excited states, on the contrary, both decelerating and accelerating forces can occur depending on the magnitude of the atomic transition frequency relative to the surface plasmon frequency.



rate research

Read More

We investigate the Dirichlet-scalar equivalent of Casimir-Polder forces between an atom and a surface with arbitrary uniaxial corrugations. The complexity of the problem can be reduced to a one-dimensional Greens function equation along the corrugation which can be solved numerically. Our technique is fully nonperturbative in the height profile of the corrugation. We present explicit results for experimentally relevant sinusoidal and sawtooth corrugations. Parameterizing the deviations from the planar limit in terms of an anomalous dimension which measures the power-law deviation from the planar case, we observe up to order-one anomalous dimensions at small and intermediate scales and a universal regime at larger distances. This large-distance universality can be understood from the fact that the relevant fluctuations average over corrugation structures smaller than the atom-wall distance.
Casimir and Casimir-Polder repulsion have been known for more than 50 years. The general Lifshitz configuration of parallel semi-infinite dielectric slabs permits repulsion if they are separated by a dielectric fluid that has a value of permittivity that is intermediate between those of the dielectric slabs. This was indirectly confirmed in the 1970s, and more directly by Capassos group recently. It has also been known for many years that electrically and magnetically polarizable bodies can experience a repulsive quantum vacuum force. More amenable to practical application are situations where repulsion could be achieved between ordinary conducting and dielectric bodies in vacuum. The status of the field of Casimir repulsion with emphasis on recent developments will be surveyed. Here, stress will be placed on analytic developments, especially of Casimir-Polder (CP) interactions between anisotropically polarizable atoms, and CP interactions between anisotropic atoms and bodies that also exhibit anisotropy, either because of anisotropic constituents, or because of geometry. Repulsion occurs for wedge-shaped and cylindrical conductors, provided the geometry is sufficiently asymmetric, that is, either the wedge is sufficiently sharp or the atom is sufficiently far from the cylinder.
We derive upper and lower bounds on the Casimir--Polder force between an anisotropic dipolar body and a macroscopic body separated by vacuum via algebraic properties of Maxwells equations. These bounds require only a coarse characterization of the system---the material composition of the macroscopic object, the polarizability of the dipole, and any convenient partition between the two objects---to encompass all structuring possibilities. We find that the attractive Casimir--Polder force between a polarizable dipole and a uniform planar semi-infinite bulk medium always comes within 10% of the lower bound, implying that nanostructuring is of limited use for increasing attraction. In contrast, the possibility of repulsion is observed even for isotropic dipoles, and is routinely found to be several orders of magnitude larger than any known design, including recently predicted geometries involving conductors with sharp edges. Our results have ramifications for the design of surfaces to trap, suspend, or adsorb ultracold gases.
Here we present a fundamental study on how the ground-state chemical reactivity of a molecule can be modified in a QED scenario, i.e., when it is placed inside a cavity and there is strong coupling between the cavity field and vibrational modes within the molecule. We work with a model system for the molecule (Shin-Metiu model) in which nuclear, electronic and photonic degrees of freedom are treated on the same footing. This simplified model allows the comparison of exact quantum reaction rate calculations with predictions emerging from transition state theory based on the cavity Born-Oppenheimer approach. We demonstrate that QED effects are indeed able to significantly modify activation barriers in chemical reactions and, as a consequence, reaction rates. The critical physical parameter controlling this effect is the permanent dipole of the molecule and how this magnitude changes along the reaction coordinate. We show that the effective coupling can lead to significant single-molecule energy shifts in an experimentally available nanoparticle-on-mirror cavity. We then apply the validated theory to a realistic case (internal rotation in the 1,2-dichloroethane molecule), showing how reactions can be inhibited or catalyzed depending on the profile of the molecular dipole. Furthermore, we discuss the absence of resonance effects in this process, which can be understood through its connection to Casimir-Polder forces. Finally, we treat the case of many-molecule strong coupling, and find collective modifications of reaction rates if the molecular permanent dipole moments are oriented with respected to the cavity field. This demonstrates that collective coupling can also provide a mechanism for modifying ground-state chemical reactivity of an ensemble of molecules coupled to a cavity mode.
It has always been conventionally understood that, in the dilute limit, the Casimir energy of interaction between bodies or the Casimir self-energy of a dielectric body could be identified with the sum of the van der Waals or Casimir-Polder energies of the constituents of the bodies. Recently, this proposition for self-energies has been challenged by Avni and Leonhardt [Ann. Phys. {bf 395}, 326 (2018)], who find that the energy or self-stress of a homogeneous dielectric ball with permittivity $varepsilon$ begins with a term of order $varepsilon-1$. Here we demonstrate that this cannot be correct. The only possible origin of a term linear in $varepsilon-1$ lies in the bulk energy, that energy which would be present if either the material of the body, or of its surroundings, filled all space. Since Avni and Leonhardt correctly subtract the bulk terms, the linear term they find likely arises from their omission of an integral over the transverse stress tensor.
comments
Fetching comments Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
mircosoft-partner

هل ترغب بارسال اشعارات عن اخر التحديثات في شمرا-اكاديميا