Work

Effective screening of medium-assisted van der Waals interactions between embedded particles

Year: 2021

Type: article

Abstract: The effect of an implicit medium on dispersive interactions of particle pairs is discussed, and simple expressions for the correction relative to vacuum are derived. We show that a single point Gauss quadrature leads to the intuitive result that the vacuum van der Waals C6-coefficient is screened by the permittivity squared of the environment evaluated near to the resonance frequencies of the interacting particles. This approximation should be particularly relevant if the medium is transparent at these frequencies. In this manuscript, we provide simple models and sets of parameters for commonly used solvents, atoms, and small molecules.

Source: The Journal of Chemical Physics

DOI: 10.1063/5.0037629

Authors: Johannes Fiedler, Michael Walter, Stefan Yoshi Buhmann

Institutions: University of Freiburg, University of Bergen, Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials, University of Kassel

Language: English

Topic: Quantum Electrodynamics and Casimir Effect

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,500

Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft