No Arabic abstract
Several experimental demonstrations of the Casimir force between two closely spaced bodies have been realized over the past two decades. Extending the theory to incorporate the behavior of the force between two superconducting films close to their transition temperature has resulted in competing predictions. To date, no experiment exists that can test these theories, partly due to the difficulty in aligning two superconductors in close proximity, while still allowing for a temperature-independent readout of the arising force between them. Here we present an on-chip platform based on an optomechanical cavity in combination with a grounded superconducting capacitor, which overcomes these challenges and opens up the possibility to probe modifications to the Casimir effect between two closely spaced, freestanding superconductors as they transition into a superconducting state. We also perform preliminary force measurements that demonstrate the capability of these devices to probe the interplay between two widely measured quantum effects: Casimir forces and superconductivity.
Quantum fluctuations give rise to Casimir forces between two parallel conducting plates, the magnitude of which increases monotonically as the separation decreases. By introducing nanoscale gratings to the surfaces, recent advances have opened opportunities for controlling the Casimir force in complex geometries. Here, we measure the Casimir force between two rectangular gratings in regimes not accessible before. Using an on-chip detection platform, we achieve accurate alignment between the two gratings so that they interpenetrate as the separation is reduced. Just before interpenetration occurs, the measured Casimir force is found to have a geometry dependence that is much stronger than previous experiments, with deviations from the proximity force approximation reaching a factor of ~500. After the gratings interpenetrate each other, the Casimir force becomes non-zero and independent of displacement. This work shows that the presence of gratings can strongly modify the Casimir force to control the interaction between nanomechanical components.
We present Casimir force measurements in a sphere-plate configuration that consists of a high quality nanomembrane resonator and a millimeter sized gold coated sphere. The nanomembrane is fabricated from stoichiometric silicon nitride metallized with gold. A Kelvin probe method is used in situ to image the surface potentials to minimize the distance-dependent residual force. Resonance-enhanced frequency-domain measurements of the nanomembrane motion allow for very high resolution measurements of the Casimir force gradient (down to a force gradient sensitivity of 3 uN/m). Using this technique, the Casimir force in the range of 100 nm to 2 um is accurately measured. Experimental data thus obtained indicate that the device system in the measured range is best described with the Drude model.
We study the role of surface polaritons in the zero-temperature Casimir effect between two graphene layers that are described by the Dirac model. A parametric approach allows us to accurately calculate the dispersion relations of the relevant modes and to evaluate their contribution to the total Casimir energy. The resulting force features a change of sign from attractive to repulsive as the distance between the layers increases. Contrary to similar calculations that have been performed for metallic plates, our asymptotic analysis demonstrates that at small separations the polaritonic contribution becomes negligible relative to the total energy.
We present a new approach to calculate the attractive long-range vortex-vortex interaction of the van der Waals type present in anisotropic and layered superconductors. The mapping of the statistical mechanics of two-dimensional charged bosons allows us to define a Casimir problem: Two half spaces of vortex matter separated by a gap of width R are mapped to two dielectric half planes of charged bosons interacting via a massive gauge field. We determine the attractive Casimir force between the two half planes and show that it agrees with the pairwise summation of the van der Waals force between vortices.
We report on measurements of forces acting between two conducting surfaces in a spherical-plane configuration in the 35 nm-1 micrometer separation range. The measurements are obtained by performing electrostatic calibrations followed by a residual analysis after subtracting the electrostatic-dependent component. We find in all runs optimal fitting of the calibrations for exponents smaller than the one predicted by electrostatics for an ideal sphere-plane geometry. We also find that the external bias potential necessary to minimize the electrostatic contribution depends on the sphere-plane distance. In spite of these anomalies, by implementing a parametrixation-dependent subtraction of the electrostatic contribution we have found evidence for short-distance attractive forces of magnitude comparable to the expected Casimir-Lifshitz force. We finally discuss the relevance of our findings in the more general context of Casimir-Lifshitz force measurements, with particular regard to the critical issues of the electrical and geometrical characterization of the involved surfaces.