Enhanced van der Waals interaction at interfaces

Abstract

Using a recently obtained (general) formula for the interaction energy between an excited and a ground-state atom (Sherkunov Y 2007 Phys. Rev. A 75 012705), we consider the interaction energy between two such atoms near the interface between two media. We demonstrate that under the circumstances of the resonant coupling of the excited atom to the surface polariton mode of a vacuum-medium system the nonretarded atom*-atom interaction energy can be enhanced by (several) orders of magnitude in comparison with the van der Waals interaction energy of the two isolated atoms.

8 pages, 5 figures, local-field corrections included and improved presentation

References in corpus (6)

• High-precision calculations of dispersion coefficients, static dipole polarizabilities, and atom-wall interaction constants for alkali-metal atoms
• Casimir-Polder forces: A non-perturbative approach
• Dynamical Casimir-Polder energy between an excited and a ground-state atom
• Body-assisted van der Waals interaction between two atoms
• Local-field correction to one- and two-atom van der Waals interactions
• Casimir-Polder interaction between an excited atom and a gas dielectric medium

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Casimir-Polder repulsion near edges: wedge apex and a screen with an aperture
• Body-assisted van der Waals interaction between excited atoms
• Repulsive Casimir-Polder forces from cosmic strings
• Local-field corrected van der Waals potentials in magnetodielectric multilayer systems
• Surface Enhanced van der Waals force