1207.6163 (J. Zou et al.)

Geometry-dependent Casimir forces on a silicon chip    [PDF]

J. Zou, Z. Marcet, A. W. Rodriguez, M. T. H. Reid, A. P. McCauley, I. I. Kravchenko, T. Lu, Y. Bao, S. G. Johnson, H. B. Chan

We report measurements of the Casimir force gradient between two parallel silicon beams with near-square cross sections at separations down to $\sim$ 260 nm. Both the force-sensing element and the actuator that controls the distance are integrated on the same substrate, with no need for manual alignment. Taking residual electrostatic forces into consideration, the measured Casimir force gradient agrees with the theoretical calculation based on the exact geometry. This scheme opens the possibility of tailoring the Casimir force using lithographically defined components of non-conventional shapes.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.6163