Vacuum fluctuation forces between ultra-thin films

Abstract

We have investigated the role of the quantum size effects in the evaluation of the force caused by electromagnetic vacuum fluctuations between ultra-thin films, using the dielectric tensor derived from the particle in a box model. Comparison with the results obtained by adopting a continuum dielectric model shows that, for film thicknesses of 1-10 nm, the electron confinement causes changes in the force intensity with respect to the isotropic plasma model which range from 40% to few percent depending upon the film electron density and the film separation. The calculated force shows quantum size oscillations, which can be significant for film separation distances of several nanometers. The role of electron confinement in reducing the large distance Casimir force is discussed.

References in corpus (10)

• New Developments in the Casimir Effect
• Stiction, Adhesion Energy and the Casimir Effect in Micromechanical Systems
• Casimir force between metallic mirrors
• Effect of hydrogen-switchable mirrors on the Casimir force
• Demonstration of the difference Casimir force for samples with different charge carrier densities
• Sample dependence of the Casimir forces
• Pulsating Casimir force
• Generalized plasma-like permittivity and thermal Casimir force between real metals
• Self-consistent study of electron confinement to metallic thin films on solid surfaces
• Calculation of the Casimir Force between Similar and Dissimilar Metal Plates at Finite Temperature

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Casimir Force between Atomically Thin Gold Films
• The van der Waals and Casimir energy of anisotropic atomically thin metallic films
• Casimir effect with dynamical matter on thin mirrors
• Confinement-Induced Nonlocality and Casimir Force in Transdimensional Systems
• The Effect of Epsilon-Near-Zero (ENZ) Modes on the Casimir Interaction between Ultrathin Films
• Size quantization effects in thin film Casimir interaction