Attractive and repulsive fluctuation-induced pressure in peptide films deposited on semiconductor substrates

TL;DR

This study investigates the fluctuation-induced Casimir pressure in peptide films on semiconductor substrates, revealing conditions for attractive or repulsive forces that impact thin film stability in microdevices.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of Casimir pressure behavior in peptide films on various semiconductor substrates using Lifshitz theory, considering dielectric and metallic states.

Findings

Casimir pressure vanishes at specific film thicknesses on dielectric substrates.

Pressure is repulsive for thinner films and attractive for thicker films on dielectric substrates.

Pressure is always repulsive on metallic semiconductor substrates.

Abstract

We consider the fluctuation-induced (Casimir) pressure in peptide films deposited on GaAs, Ge, and ZnS substrates which are either in dielectric or metallic state. Calculations of the Casimir pressure are performed in the framework of fundamental Lifshitz theory employing the frequency-dependent dielectric permittivities of all involved materials. The electric conductivity of semiconductor substrates is taken into account within the experimentally and thermodynamically consistent approach. According to our results, the Casimir pressure in peptide films deposited on dielectric-type semiconductor substrates vanishes for some definite film thickness, is repulsive for thinner and attractive for thicker films. The dependence of this effect on the fraction of water in the film and on the static dielectric permittivity of semiconductor substrate is determined. For the metallic-type semiconductor substrates, the Casimir pressure in peptide coatings is shown to be always repulsive. Possible applications of these results to the problem of stability of thin coatings in microdevices are discussed.