The Casimir force between graphene sheets is investigated with emphasis on the effect from spatial dispersion using a combination of factors, such as a nonzero chemical potential and an induced energy gap. We distinguish between two regimes for the i
nteraction - T=0 $K$ and $T eq 0$ $K$. It is found that the quantum mechanical interaction (T=0 $K$) retains its distance dependence regardless of the inclusion of dispersion. The spatial dispersion from the finite temperature Casimir force is found to contribute for the most part from $n=0$ Matsubara term. These effects become important as graphene is tailored to become a poor conductor by inducing a band gap.
We study theoretically the interactions of excitonic states with surface electromagnetic modes of small-diameter (~1 nm) semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes. We show that these interactions can result in strong exciton-surface-plasmon coupl
ing. The exciton absorption lineshapes exhibit the line (Rabi) splitting $~0.1-0.3$ eV as the exciton energy is tuned to the nearest interband surface plasmon resonance of the nanotube. We expect this effect to open a path to new optoelectronic device applications of semiconducting carbon nanotubes.
