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Title: Casimir Interaction between Plane and Spherical Metallic Surfaces

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
; ; ;  [1];  [2]
  1. Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, CNRS, ENS, Universite Pierre et Marie Curie case 74, Campus Jussieu, F-75252 Paris Cedex 05 (France)
  2. Instituto de Fisica, UFRJ, CP 68528, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 21941-972 (Brazil)

We give an exact series expansion of the Casimir force between plane and spherical metallic surfaces in the nontrivial situation where the sphere radius R, the plane-sphere distance L and the plasma wavelength {lambda}{sub P} have arbitrary relative values. We then present numerical evaluation of this expansion for not too small values of L/R. For metallic nanospheres where R, L and {lambda}{sub P} have comparable values, we interpret our results in terms of a correlation between the effects of geometry beyond the proximity force approximation and of finite reflectivity due to material properties. We also discuss the interest of our results for the current Casimir experiments which are performed with spheres of large radius R>>L.

OSTI ID:
21325538
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 23; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.230404; (c) 2009 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English