Measurement of the Temperature Dependence of the Casimir-Polder Force
- JILA, National Institute of Standards and Technology and University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0440, USA, and Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0390 (United States)
- Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita di Trento and CNR-INFM BEC Center, Via Sommarive 14, I-38050 Povo, Trento (Italy)
We report on the first measurement of a temperature dependence of the Casimir-Polder force. This measurement was obtained by positioning a nearly pure {sup 87}Rb Bose-Einstein condensate a few microns from a dielectric substrate and exciting its dipole oscillation. Changes in the collective oscillation frequency of the magnetically trapped atoms result from spatial variations in the surface-atom force. In our experiment, the dielectric substrate is heated up to 605 K, while the surrounding environment is kept near room temperature (310 K). The effect of the Casimir-Polder force is measured to be nearly 3 times larger for a 605 K substrate than for a room-temperature substrate, showing a clear temperature dependence in agreement with theory.
- OSTI ID:
- 20955445
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review Letters, Vol. 98, Issue 6; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.063201; (c) 2007 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0031-9007
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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