Probing the Casimir force with optical tweezers

Abstract

We propose to use optical tweezers to probe the Casimir interaction between microspheres inside a liquid medium for geometric aspect ratios far beyond the validity of the widely employed proximity force approximation. This setup has the potential for revealing unprecedented features associated to the non-trivial role of the spherical curvatures. For a proof of concept, we measure femtonewton double layer forces between polystyrene microspheres at distances above $400$ nm by employing very soft optical tweezers, with stiffness of the order of fractions of a fN/nm. As a future application, we propose to tune the Casimir interaction between a metallic and a polystyrene microsphere in saline solution from attraction to repulsion by varying the salt concentration. With those materials, the screened Casimir interaction may have a larger magnitude than the unscreened one. This line of investigation has the potential for bringing together different fields including classical and quantum optics, statistical physics and colloid science, while paving the way for novel quantitative applications of optical tweezers in cell and molecular biology.

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (36)

• Optical levitation of 10 nanogram spheres with nano-$g$ acceleration sensitivity
• Nonadditivity of Critical Casimir Forces
• Plasma vs Drude modelling of the Casimir force: beyond the proximity force approximation
• Three-dimensional force-field microscopy with optically levitated microspheres
• Single-beam dielectric-microsphere trapping with optical heterodyne detection
• Precision Mass and Density Measurement of Individual Optically Levitated Microspheres
• Optical Trapping in a Dark Focus
• Proximity force approximation and specular reflection: Application of the WKB limit of Mie scattering to the Casimir effect
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• Topological insulator particles as optically induced oscillators: towards dynamical force measurements and optical rheology
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• Scattering theory of the screened Casimir interaction in electrolytes
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