Halving the Casimir force with conductive oxides

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that conductive oxides can significantly reduce the Casimir force in air, making it the dominant interaction and enabling potential applications in micro- and nano-electromechanical systems.

Contribution

It introduces conductive oxides as a means to halve the Casimir force in air, a novel approach for force engineering at ambient conditions.

Findings

Casimir force can be reduced by up to 50% with conductive oxides.

Conductive oxides enable Casimir force to dominate electrostatic forces in air.

Potential for improved micro- and nano-electromechanical system design.

Abstract

The possibility to modify the strength of the Casimir effect by tailoring the dielectric functions of the interacting surfaces is regarded as a unique opportunity in the development of Micro- and NanoElectroMechanical Systems. In air, however, one expects that, unless noble metals are used, the electrostatic force arising from trapped charges overcomes the Casimir attraction, leaving no room for exploitation of Casimir force engineering at ambient conditions. Here we show that, in the presence of a conductive oxide, the Casimir force can be the dominant interaction even in air, and that the use of conductive oxides allows one to reduce the Casimir force up to a factor of 2 when compared to noble metals.