A theory of electromagnetic fluctuations for metallic surfaces and van der Waals interactions between metallic bodies

Abstract

A new general expression is derived for the fluctuating electromagnetic field outside a metal surface, in terms of its surface impedance. It provides a generalization to real metals of Lifshitz theory of molecular interactions between dielectric solids. The theory is used to compute the radiative heat transfer between two parallel metal surfaces at different temperatures. It is shown that a measurement of this quantity may provide an experimental resolution of a long-standing controversy about the effect of thermal corrections on the Casimir force between real metal plates.

4 pages, 2 figures; typos corrected, minor changes to match the published version in Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (3)

• Towards measuring variations of Casimir energy by a superconducting cavity
• Variations of Casimir energy from a superconducting transition
• Comment on " Low-frequency character of the Casimir force between metallic films"

Cited by in corpus (14)

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• Near-field radiative heat transfer between a sphere and a substrate
• Effects of spatial dispersion in near-field radiative heat transfer between two parallel metallic surfaces
• Casimir-Lifshitz force out of thermal equilibrium
• Thermal corrections to the Casimir effect
• Thermal correction to the Casimir force, radiative heat transfer, and an experiment
• Shape-dependence of near-field heat transfer between a spheroidal nanoparticle and a flat surface
• Fluctuational electrodynamics of hyperbolic metamaterials
• General theory of electromagnetic fluctuations near a homogeneous surface, in terms of its reflection amplitudes
• The Casimir pressure between metallic plates out of thermal equilibrium: Proposed test for the relaxation properties of free electrons
• Nonequilibrium effects in the Casimir force between two similar metallic plates kept at different temperatures
• Equilibrium long-ranged charge correlations at the surface of a conductor coupled to the electromagnetic radiation
• Temperature Dependence of the Response Functions of Graphene: Impact on Casimir and Casimi-Polder Forces in and out of Thermal Equilibrium
• Nonequilibrium Casimir pressure for two graphene-coated plates: Quantum field theoretical approach