Spectroscopy on nanoparticles without light

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel spectroscopy method utilizing Casimir interactions in liquids to analyze nanoparticle electromagnetic properties without using light, enabling dielectric function estimation.

Contribution

The paper presents a new spectroscopy technique based on Casimir forces, allowing nanoparticle analysis without light and including a reconstruction algorithm for dielectric properties.

Findings

Demonstrated Casimir-based spectroscopy in liquid media.

Developed an algorithm to estimate dielectric functions.

Showed potential for nanoparticle analysis without optical methods.

Abstract

One of the most important tools in modern science is the analysis of electromagnetic properties via spectroscopy. The various types of spectroscopy can be classified by the underlying type of interactions between energy and material. In this paper we demonstrate a new class of spectroscopy based on Casimir interactions between a solid investigated object and a reference surface embedded in an environmental liquid medium. Our main example is based on the measurement of Hamaker constants upon changing the concentration of an intervening two-component liquid, where we demonstrate a possible reconstruction algorithm to estimate the frequency-dependent dielectric function of the investigated particle.