The Casimir effect in an inhomogeneous dielectric is investigated using Lifshitzs theory of electromagnetic vacuum energy. A permittivity function that depends continuously on one Cartesian coordinate is chosen, bounded on each side by homogeneous di
electrics. The result for the Casimir stress is infinite everywhere inside the inhomogeneous region, a divergence that does not occur for piece-wise homogeneous dielectrics with planar boundaries. A Casimir force per unit volume can be extracted from the infinite stress but it diverges on the boundaries between the inhomogeneous medium and the homogeneous dielectrics. An alternative regularization of the vacuum stress is considered that removes the contribution of the inhomogeneity over small distances, where macroscopic electromagnetism is invalid. The alternative regularization yields a finite Casimir stress inside the inhomogeneous region, but the stress and force per unit volume diverge on the boundaries with the homogeneous dielectrics. The case of inhomogeneous dielectrics with planar boundaries thus falls outside the current understanding of the Casimir effect.
We observe the dynamics of pulse trapping in a microstructured fiber. Few-cycle pulses create a system of two pulses: a Raman shifting soliton traps a pulse in the normal dispersion regime. When the soliton approaches a wavelength of zero group veloc
ity dispersion the Raman shifting abruptly terminates and the trapped pulse is released. In particular, the trap is less than 4ps long and contains a 1ps pulse. After being released, this pulse asymmetrically expands to more than 10ps. Additionally, there is no disturbance of the trapping dynamics at high input pulse energies as the supercontinuum develops further.
The zero-temperature Casimir-Lifshitz force between two plates moving parallel to each other at arbitrary constant speed was found in [New J. Phys. 11, 033035 (2009)]. The solution is here generalized to the case where the plates are at different tem
peratures. The Casimir-Lifshitz force is obtained by calculating the electromagnetic stress tensor, using the method employed by Antezza et al. [Phys. Rev. A 77, 022901 (2008)] for non-moving plates at different temperatures. The perpendicular force on the plates has contributions from the quantum vacuum and from the thermal radiation; both of these contributions are influenced by the motion. In addition to the perpendicular force, thermal radiation from the moving plates gives rise to a lateral component of the Casimir-Lifshitz force, an effect with no quantum-vacuum contribution. The zero-temperature results are reproduced, in particular the non-existence of a quantum-vacuum friction between the plates.
The Casimir forces between two plates moving parallel to each other are found by calculating the vacuum electromagnetic stress tensor. The perpendicular force between the plates is modified by the motion but there is no lateral force on the plates. E
lectromagnetic vacuum fluctuations do not therefore give rise to quantum friction in this case, contrary to previous assertions. The result shows that the Casimir-Polder force on a particle moving at constant speed parallel to a plate also has no lateral component.
Barash has calculated the Casimir forces between parallel birefringent plates with optical axes parallel to the plate boundaries [Izv. Vyssh. Uchebn. Zaved., Radiofiz., {bf 12}, 1637 (1978)]. The interesting new feature of the solution compared to th
e case of isotropic plates is the existence of a Casimir torque which acts to line up the optical axes if they are not parallel or perpendicular. The forces were found from a calculation of the Helmholtz free energy of the electromagnetic field. Given the length of the calculations in this problem and hopes of an experimental measurement of the torque, it is important to check the results for the Casimir forces by a different method. We provide this check by calculating the electromagnetic stress tensor between the plates and showing that the resulting forces are in agreement with those found by Barash.
The aim of an invisibility device is to guide light around any object put inside, being able to hide objects from sight. In this work, we propose a novel design of dielectric invisibility media based on negative refraction and optical conformal mappi
ng that seems to create perfect invisibility. This design has some advantages and more relaxed constraints compared with already proposed schemes. In particular, it represents an example where the time delay in a dielectric invisibility device is zero. Furthermore, due to impedance matching of negatively refracting materials, the reflection should be close to zero. These findings strongly indicate that perfect invisibility with optically isotropic materials is possible. Finally, the area of the invisible space is also discussed.
