Casimir-Lifshitz Interaction between Dielectric Heterostructures

TL;DR

This paper investigates how dielectric heterostructures interact via Casimir-Lifshitz forces, revealing oscillatory behaviors and force modulations influenced by patterning, material contrast, and gap size.

Contribution

It introduces a dielectric contrast perturbation theory to analyze Casimir-Lifshitz interactions in complex heterostructures with patterned materials.

Findings

Oscillatory lateral Casimir-Lifshitz forces in patterned structures

Force modulations depend on displacement and material contrast

Force strength increases with decreasing gap size

Abstract

The interaction between arbitrary dielectric heterostructures is studied within the framework of a recently developed dielectric contrast perturbation theory. It is shown that periodically patterned dielectric or metallic structures lead to oscillatory lateral Casimir-Lifshitz forces, as well as modulations in the normal force as they are displaced with respect to one another. The strength of these oscillatory contributions increases with decreasing gap size and increasing contrast in the dielectric properties of the materials used in the heterostructures.