Body-assisted van der Waals interaction between two atoms

Abstract

Using fourth-order perturbation theory, a general formula for the van der Waals potential of two neutral, unpolarized, ground-state atoms in the presence of an arbitrary arrangement of dispersing and absorbing magnetodielectric bodies is derived. The theory is applied to two atoms in bulk material and in front of a planar multilayer system, with special emphasis on the cases of a perfectly reflecting plate and a semi-infinite half space. It is demonstrated that the enhancement and reduction of the two-atom interaction due to the presence of a perfectly reflecting plate can be understood, at least in the nonretarded limit, by using the method of image charges. For the semi-infinite half space, both analytical and numerical results are presented.

17 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Local-field correction to the spontaneous decay rate of atoms embedded in bodies of finite size
• Field fluctuations near a conducting plate and Casimir-Polder forces in the presence of boundary conditions
• Van der Waals interaction of excited media
• Enhanced dispersion interaction in confined geometry

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Local-field correction to one- and two-atom van der Waals interactions
• Casimir-Polder interaction between an excited atom and a gas dielectric medium
• Interatomic van der Waals potential in the presence of a magneto-electric sphere
• Enhanced van der Waals interaction at interfaces
• Medium effects on the van der Waals force
• Casimir interaction between gas media of excited atoms