Dynamic van der Waals Interaction of a Moving Atom with the Walls of a Flat Slit

TL;DR

This paper derives a general formula for the dynamic van der Waals energy of a moving atom near flat slit walls with frequency-dependent dielectric properties, analyzing how atomic speed influences interaction strength.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive expression for dynamic van der Waals energy considering frequency-dependent permittivity and analyzes atomic speed effects on interaction near slit walls.

Findings

Dynamic potentials decrease with increasing atom speed.

At intermediate speeds, dynamic potentials surpass static ones by 1.5-2 times.

Interaction strength varies significantly with atom velocity.

Abstract

A general expression was obtained for the dynamic energy of the van der Waals interaction of a neutral atom with a flat slit whose walls are characterized by a frequency-dependent dielectric permittivity. The interaction of cesium atoms with the walls of metallic (Au) and dielectric (SiC) slits id analyzed numerically at speeds of 1 E04 to 10 E07 m/s. As the speed of atoms grows, the dynamic potentials near the walls become substantially smaller in magnitude than static potentials, but, in the intermediate region, the former exceed the latter by a factor of 1.5-2.0 m/s in a specific range of speeds.