Year: 2001
Type: article
Abstract: We study the geometry dependence of the Casimir energy for deformed metal plates by a path integral quantization of the electromagnetic field. For the first time, we give a complete analytical result for the deformation induced change in Casimir energy $\ensuremath{\delta}E$ in an experimentally testable, nontrivial geometry, consisting of a flat and a corrugated plate. Our results show an interesting crossover for $\ensuremath{\delta}E$ as a function of the ratio of the mean plate distance $H$, to the corrugation length $\ensuremath{\lambda}$: For $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\ll}H$ we find a slower decay $\ensuremath{\sim}{H}^{\ensuremath{-}4}$, compared to the ${H}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ behavior predicted by the commonly used pairwise summation of van der Waals forces, which is valid only for $\ensuremath{\lambda}\ensuremath{\gg}H$.
Source: Physical Review Letters
Language: English
Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
OpenAlex ID: W2031799634