Universal tuning of quantum electrodynamic interactions from power laws to exponential screening and logarithmic antiscreening

TL;DR

This paper presents a universal, tunable platform for controlling quantum electrodynamic interactions from power-law decay to exponential screening and logarithmic antiscreening using a dielectric spacer with gate-tunable conductors.

Contribution

It introduces a material-agnostic method to tune electromagnetic interactions by manipulating reflection amplitudes in a layered heterostructure, bridging different interaction regimes.

Findings

Interactions can be tuned from power-law to exponential decay.

Phase of reflection amplitude determines screening or antiscreening behavior.

Electrical control enables in situ adjustment of interaction range and strength.

Abstract

We introduce a material-agnostic platform for \emph{universal tuning of quantum electrodynamic interactions from power laws to exponential screening and logarithmic antiscreening}, realized in a dielectric spacer bounded by two gate-tunable two-dimensional conductors. The structured electromagnetic environment is completely specified by the transverse-magnetic and transverse-electric reflection amplitudes \(r_{\mathrm{TM/TE}}(q_\perp,\omega)\) of the sheets. Starting from the QED action and a Green-function formulation, we resum the multiple-reflection series and show that the interactions are governed by a discrete set of transverse cavity harmonics. In the transparent limit \(r_{\rm TM}\to 0\), the interactions reduce to bulk power laws \(U(\rho)\propto \rho^{-\alpha}\). In the reflective limit \(|r_{\rm TM}|\to 1\), the \emph{phase/parity} of \(r_{\rm TM}\) selects two qualitatively distinct branches: a Dirichlet/PEC (screening) branch \(r_{\rm TM}\to -1\) that removes the gapless transverse mode and yields an evanescent Bessel-\(K\) function \(U(\rho)\propto e^{-\pi\rho/d}/\sqrt{\rho/d}\) at \(\rho\gg d\), and an opposite Neumann/PMC-like (antiscreening) branch \(r_{\rm TM}\to +1\) that retains a gapless mode and can strongly enhance the long-range tail. Thus, the same heterostructure provides in situ electrical control over both the \emph{range} and the \emph{strength} of mediated interactions.