Anisotropic Atom-Surface Interactions in the Casimir-Polder Regime

Abstract

The distance-dependence of the anisotropic atom-wall interaction is studied. The central result is the 1/z^6 quadrupolar anisotropy decay in the retarded Casimir-Polder regime. Analysis of the transition region between non-retarded van der Waals regime (in 1/z^3) and Casimir-Polder regime shows that the anisotropy cross-over occurs at very short distances from the surface, on the order of 0.03 Lambda, where Lambda is the atom characteristic wavelength. Possible experimental verifications of this distance dependence are discussed.

arXiv comment5 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Measurement of the Casimir-Polder force through center-of-mass oscillations of a Bose-Einstein condensate
• Nanoplasmonic Lattices for Ultracold atoms
• Observation of Nonspreading Wave Packets in an Imaginary Potential

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Atom-surface physics: A review
• Long-lifetime coherence in a quantum emitter induced by a metasurface
• Spontaneous emission of a two-level atom with an arbitrarily polarized electric dipole in front of a flat dielectric surface
• Casimir-Polder effect with thermally excited surfaces
• Efficient optical pumping of alkaline atoms for evanescent fields at dielectric-vapor interfaces
• The Casimir force between parallel plates separated by anisotropic media