Fluctuation induced forces in the presence of mobile carrier drift

Abstract

A small polarizable object (an atom, molecule or nanoparticle), placed above a medium with flowing dc current in it, is considered. It is shown that the dc current can have a strong effect on the force exerted on the particle. The Casimir-Lifshitz force, well studied in the absence of current, gets modified due to drifting mobile carriers in the medium. Furthermore, a force in the lateral direction appears. This force is a non-monotonic function of the drift velocity and its maximal value is comparable with the Casimir-Lifshitz force. If the temperatures of the medium and the particle are different, this lateral force can be directed along the current (drag) or in the opposite direction (anti-drag).

24 pages

References in corpus (4)

• Casimir-Lifshitz force out of thermal equilibrium
• Non-equilibrium Fluctuational Quantum Electrodynamics: Heat Radiation, Heat Transfer, and Force
• Nonequilibrium Tuning of the Thermal Casimir Effect
• The Casimir frictional drag force between a SiO2 tip and a graphene-covered SiO2 substrate

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• Nonequilibrium Casimir-Lifshitz force and anomalous radiation heating of a small particle
• Stable-to-unstable transition in quantum friction
• Quantum Friction near the Instability Threshold
• Singular resonance in fluctuation-electromagnetic phenomena during the rotation of a nanoparticle near a surface
• Current-induced near-field radiative energy, linear-momentum, and angular-momentum transfer