Casimir switch: steering optical transparency with vacuum forces

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how vacuum forces, specifically the Casimir effect, can be used to control optical transparency in nanomechanical systems, enabling the design of tunable optical switches.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method of using vacuum-induced Casimir forces to achieve tunable optomechanically-induced transparency in nanodevices.

Findings

Vacuum forces can significantly alter optical output rates.

Casimir force can be used to switch optical transparency on and off.

Potential for designing exotic optical nano-devices.

Abstract

The Casimir force, originating from vacuum zero-point energy, is one of the most intriguing purely quantum effects. It has attracted renewed interests in current field of nanomechanics, due to the rapid size decrease of on-chip devices. Here we study the optomechanically-induced transparency (OMIT) with a tunable Casimir force. We find that the optical output rate can be significantly altered by the vacuum force, even terminated and then restored, indicating a highly-controlled optical switch. Our result addresses the possibility of designing exotic optical nano-devices by harnessing the power of vacuum.