Casimir Force in QED
Thoery
"On
the attraction between two perfectly conducting plates,"
H.B.G.
Casimir, Proc. K. Ned. Akad. Wet. 51,
793 (1948)
Quantum fluctuations
of electromagnetic field in the vacuum between leads to an attractive force between perfect mirrors
Experiment
High precision tests appeared relatively recently:
"Demonstration
of the Casimir Force in the 0.6 to 6µm Range," (using
a torsion pendulum)
S.K. Lamoreaux, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 78, 5 (1997)
"Precision Measurements of
the Casimir Force from 0.1 to 0.9µm," (using atomic force
microscopy)
U. Mohideen and A. Roy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 4549 (1998) (offline)
Other groups [Ederth; Bressi, Carugno, Onofrio & Ruoso; Decca, Lopez, Fischbach & Krause; ...]
Applications
Important in microelectromechanical systems (MEMS): micron-scale metallic machines
"The role of the casimir effect
in the static deflection and stiction of membrane strips in MEMS,"
F.
Michael Serry, Dirk Walliser, and G. Jordan Maclay, J. Appl. Phys. 84,
2501 (1998)
"Stiction, adhesion energy, and
the Casimir effect in micromechanical systems,"
E.
Buks and M. L. Roukes, Phys. Rev. B 63,
033402 (2001)
"Quantum Mechanical Actuation
of Microelectromechanical Systems by the Casimir Force,"
H.
B. Chan, V. A. Aksyuk, R. N. Kleiman, D. J. Bishop, Federico Capasso, Science 291,
1941 (2001)
