Comment on "Casimir Force and In Situ Surface Potential Measurements on Nanomembranes"

TL;DR

This paper critiques a recent claim that the Drude model best describes the Casimir force measurements, showing that the supporting calculations are flawed and the data do not align with existing models, indicating potential systematic errors.

Contribution

The paper challenges previous interpretations of Casimir force data, highlighting calculation errors and discrepancies with theoretical models, and suggests the need for re-evaluation of experimental results.

Findings

Calculations supporting the previous claim are incorrect.

Measured data strongly disagree with both Drude and plasma models.

Potential unaccounted systematic errors in the original experiments.

Abstract

Recently D. Garcia-Sanches, K. Y. Fong, H. Bhaskaran, S. Lamoreaux, and H. X. Tang [Phys. Rev. Lett. v.109, 027202 (2012)] claimed that the frequency shift of an oscillator under the influence of the residual electric and Casimir forces is best described by the Drude model approach to the Casimir force and excludes the plasma model approach. We demonstrate that calculations in support of this claim are performed incorrectly and that the measured data are in strong disagreement with both theoretical approaches to the Casimir force, thus, suggesting the presence of an unaccounted systematic error in the data.