Transition from Casimir to van der Waals force between macroscopic bodies

Surface van der Waals Forces in a Nutshell

Most often in chemical physics, long range van der Waals surface interactions are approximated by the exact asymptotic result at vanishing distance, the well known additive approximation of London dispersion forces due to Hamaker. However, the description of retardation effects that is known since the time of Casimir is completely neglected for lack of a tractable expression. Here we show that it is possible to describe surface van der Waals forces at arbitrary distances in one single simple equation. The result captures the long sought crossover from non-retarded (London) to retarded (Casimir…

Repulsive Casimir forces between solid materials with high refractive index intervening liquids

In order to explore repulsive Casimir/van der Waals forces between solid materials with liquid as the intervening medium, we analyze dielectric data for a wide range of materials as for example PTFE, polystyrene, silica and more than twenty liquids. Although significant variation in the dielectric data from different sources exist, we provide a scheme based on measured static dielectric constants, refractive indices, and applying Kramers Kronig (KK) consistency to dielectric data to create accurate dielectric functions at imaginary frequencies. The latter is necessary for more accurate force c…

Thermal quantum field theory and the Casimir interaction between dielectrics

The Casimir and van der Waals interaction between two dissimilar thick dielectric plates is reconsidered on the basis of thermal quantum field theory in Matsubara formulation. We briefly review two main derivations of the Lifshitz formula in the framework of thermal quantum field theory without use of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. A set of special conditions is formulated under which these derivations remain valid in the presence of dissipation. The low-temperature behavior of the Casimir and van der Waals interactions between dissimilar dielectrics is found analytically from the Lifshi…

Normal and lateral Casimir force: Advances and prospects

We discuss recent experimental and theoretical results on the Casimir force between real material bodies made of different materials. Special attention is paid to calculations of the normal Casimir force acting perpendicular to the surface with the help of the Lifshitz theory taking into account the role of free charge carriers. Theoretical results for the thermal Casimir force acting between metallic, dielectric and semiconductor materials are presented and compared with available experimental data. Main attention is concentrated on the possibility to control the magnitude and sign of the Cas…

FDE-vdW: A van der Waals Inclusive Subsystem Density-Functional Theory

We present a formally exact van der Waals inclusive electronic structure theory, called FDE-vdW, based on the Frozen Density Embedding formulation of subsystem Density-Functional Theory. In subsystem DFT, the energy functional is composed of subsystem additive and non-additive terms. We show that an appropriate definition of the long-range correlation energy is given by the value of the non-additive correlation functional. This functional is evaluated using the Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem aided by a formally exact decomposition of the response functions into subsystem contributions. FDE-vd…

Casimir 物理学中的温度-距离关系

Temperature-Distance Relations in Casimir Physics

本文基于 Wick 和 Bohr 的能量-时间不确定关系概念，探讨了 Casimir-Lifshitz 力中的温度-距离关系，发现在低温区零点能抵消热辐射压时存在精确关系。

The London model of Van-der-Waals forces: what's next?

London's polarization model is extended over a wide range of VdW attraction. At low temperature the VdW attraction is the main competitor to the Casimir force. As the temperature is raised, the VdW force decreases by virtue of the polsrizability falling down gradually. This trend is advanced in multilevel systems. such as the off-center defects, where the polarizability is renormalized through electron-vibrational mode coupling to gain a multiple vibronic enhancement by many orders of magnitude. Applications to high-Tc superconductivity and cosmology are conceivable.

Enhancement of noncontact friction between closely spaced bodies by two-dimensional systems

. We consider the effect of an external bias voltage and the spatial variation of the surface potential, on the damping of cantilever vibrations. The electrostatic friction is due to energy losses in the sample created by the electromagnetic field from the oscillating charges induced on the surface of the tip by the bias voltage and spatial variation of the surface potential. A similar effect arises when the tip is oscillating in the electrostatic field created by charged defects in a dielectric substrate. The electrostatic friction is compared with the van der Waals friction originating from …