The Casimir frictional drag force between a SiO2 tip and a graphene-covered SiO2 substrate

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to detect Casimir frictional drag force between a SiO2 tip and a graphene-covered SiO2 substrate using a non-contact force microscope, enabling study of thermal and quantum effects and potential applications in MEMS/NEMS.

Contribution

It introduces a novel experimental setup for mechanically detecting Casimir friction using a non-contact force microscope with a graphene-covered substrate.

Findings

Frictional drag force can be measured via cantilever bending.

Thermal and quantum contributions to Casimir friction can be studied.

Potential applications in micro- and nano-electromechanical devices.

Abstract

The possibility of the mechanical detection of the Casimir friction using the non-contact force microscope is discussed. On a SiO2 tip situated above a graphene-covered SiO2 substrate will act the frictional drag force mediated by a fluctuating electromagnetic field produced by a current in the graphene sheet. This friction force will produce the bending of the cantilever, which can be measured by state-of-art non-contact force microscope. Both the thermal and quantum contributions to the Casimir frictional drag force can be studied using this experimental setup. This result paves the ways for the mechanical detection of the Casimir friction and for the application of the frictional drag effect in micro- and nano- electromechanical devices (MEMS and NEMS).