Tunable non-additivity in Casimir-Lifshitz force between graphene gratings

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that the Casimir-Lifshitz force between graphene gratings can be significantly modulated in situ by changing the chemical potential, revealing tunable non-additivity effects crucial for nano-electromechanical systems.

Contribution

It introduces a scattering matrix approach considering high-order diffractions to analyze the tunable non-additivity of the Casimir-Lifshitz force between graphene gratings.

Findings

Non-additivity is significantly high and tunable via chemical potential.

Geometrical parameter d/D influences the additive versus non-additive regimes.

Full electromagnetic calculations are necessary beyond certain parameter regimes.

Abstract

We investigate the Casimir-Lifshitz force (CLF) between two identical graphene strip gratings, laid on finite dielectric substrates, by using the scattering matrix (S-matrix) approach derived from the Fourier Modal Method with Local Basis Functions (FMM-LBF). We fully take into account the high-order electromagnetic diffractions, the multiple scattering and the exact 2D feature of the graphene strips. We show that the non-additivity, which is one of the most interesting features of the CLF in general, is significantly high and can be modulated in situ, without any change in the actual material geometry and this by varying the graphene chemical potential. We discuss the nature of the geometrical effects and show the relevance of the geometric parameter d/D (i.e. the ratio between separation and grating period), which allows to explore the regions of parameters where the additive result is fully acceptable or where the full calculation is needed. This study can open to deeper experimental exploration of the non-additive features of the CLF with micro- or nano-electromechanical graphene-based systems.