Quantum fluctuations give rise to van der Waals and Casimir forces that
dominate the interaction between electrically neutral objects at sub-micron
separations. Under the trend of miniaturization, such quantum electrodynamical
effects are expected to play an important role in micro- and nano-mechanical
devices. Nevertheless, utilization of Casimir forces on the chip level remains
a major challenge because all experiments so far require an external object to
be manually positioned close to the mechanical element. Here, by integrating a
force-sensing micromechanical beam and an electrostatic actuator on a single
chip, we demonstrate the Casimir effect between two micromachined silicon
components on the same substrate. A high degree of parallelism between the two
near-planar interacting surfaces can be achieved because they are defined in a
single lithographic step. Apart from providing a compact platform for Casimir
force measurements, this scheme also opens the possibility of tailoring the
Casimir force using lithographically defined components of non-conventional
shapes.
%0 Generic
%1 zou2012casimir
%A Zou, J.
%A Marcet, Z.
%A Rodriguez, A. W.
%A Reid, M. T. H.
%A McCauley, A. P.
%A Kravchenko, I. I.
%A Lu, T.
%A Bao, Y.
%A Johnson, S. G.
%A Chan, H. B.
%D 2012
%K casimir coding computing mathematics physics
%R 10.1038/ncomms2842
%T Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.6163
%X Quantum fluctuations give rise to van der Waals and Casimir forces that
dominate the interaction between electrically neutral objects at sub-micron
separations. Under the trend of miniaturization, such quantum electrodynamical
effects are expected to play an important role in micro- and nano-mechanical
devices. Nevertheless, utilization of Casimir forces on the chip level remains
a major challenge because all experiments so far require an external object to
be manually positioned close to the mechanical element. Here, by integrating a
force-sensing micromechanical beam and an electrostatic actuator on a single
chip, we demonstrate the Casimir effect between two micromachined silicon
components on the same substrate. A high degree of parallelism between the two
near-planar interacting surfaces can be achieved because they are defined in a
single lithographic step. Apart from providing a compact platform for Casimir
force measurements, this scheme also opens the possibility of tailoring the
Casimir force using lithographically defined components of non-conventional
shapes.
@misc{zou2012casimir,
abstract = {Quantum fluctuations give rise to van der Waals and Casimir forces that
dominate the interaction between electrically neutral objects at sub-micron
separations. Under the trend of miniaturization, such quantum electrodynamical
effects are expected to play an important role in micro- and nano-mechanical
devices. Nevertheless, utilization of Casimir forces on the chip level remains
a major challenge because all experiments so far require an external object to
be manually positioned close to the mechanical element. Here, by integrating a
force-sensing micromechanical beam and an electrostatic actuator on a single
chip, we demonstrate the Casimir effect between two micromachined silicon
components on the same substrate. A high degree of parallelism between the two
near-planar interacting surfaces can be achieved because they are defined in a
single lithographic step. Apart from providing a compact platform for Casimir
force measurements, this scheme also opens the possibility of tailoring the
Casimir force using lithographically defined components of non-conventional
shapes.},
added-at = {2013-12-23T11:48:19.000+0100},
author = {Zou, J. and Marcet, Z. and Rodriguez, A. W. and Reid, M. T. H. and McCauley, A. P. and Kravchenko, I. I. and Lu, T. and Bao, Y. and Johnson, S. G. and Chan, H. B.},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/24c1ce501e4772cf64b40ef662e689351/aeu_research},
description = {Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms2842},
interhash = {b4d8c161012e37fa3639a21adb605dc7},
intrahash = {4c1ce501e4772cf64b40ef662e689351},
keywords = {casimir coding computing mathematics physics},
note = {cite arxiv:1207.6163},
timestamp = {2013-12-23T11:48:19.000+0100},
title = {Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip},
url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.6163},
year = 2012
}