Achieving a Strongly Temperature-Dependent Casimir Effect

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to achieve high temperature sensitivity in the Casimir force by measuring stable separations between dielectric objects in fluid, revealing significant temperature-dependent variations and phenomena.

Contribution

It presents a novel approach to enhance temperature sensitivity of the Casimir effect through stable separation measurements and analyzes related phenomena.

Findings

Large > 2nm/K variations in stable separations near room temperature

Sensitivity of average separation to temperature changes due to Brownian motion

Observation of irreversible transitions from suspension to stiction with temperature

Abstract

We propose a method of achieving large temperature sensitivity in the Casimir force that involves measuring the stable separation between dielectric objects immersed in fluid. We study the Casimir force between slabs and spheres using realistic material models, and find large > 2nm/K variations in their stable separations (hundreds of nanometers) near room temperature. In addition, we analyze the effects of Brownian motion on suspended objects, and show that the average separation is also sensitive to changes in temperature . Finally, this approach also leads to rich qualitative phenomena, such as irreversible transitions, from suspension to stiction, as the temperature is varied.