Coupled surface polaritons and the Casimir force

C. Henkel; K. Joulain; J.-Ph. Mulet; J.-J. Greffet

doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.69.023808

Coupled surface polaritons and the Casimir force

C. Henkel, K. Joulain, J.-Ph. Mulet, and J.-J. Greffet

Phys. Rev. A 69, 023808 – Published 17 February 2004

Abstract

The Casimir force between metallic plates made of realistic materials is evaluated for distances in the nanometer range. A spectrum over real frequencies is introduced and shows narrow peaks due to surface resonances (plasmon polaritons or phonon polaritons) that are coupled across the vacuum gap. We demonstrate that the Casimir force originates from the attraction (repulsion) due to the corresponding symmetric (antisymmetric) eigenmodes, respectively. This picture is used to derive a simple analytical estimate of the Casimir force at short distances. We recover the result known for Drude metals without absorption and compute the correction for weakly absorbing materials.

Received 24 July 2003

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.69.023808

Authors & Affiliations

C. Henkel^*

Institut für Physik, Universität Potsdam, Am Neuen Palais 10, 14469 Potsdam, Germany

K. Joulain^†, J.-Ph. Mulet^‡, and J.-J. Greffet

Laboratoire EM2C, Ecole Centrale Paris, 92295 Châtenay-Malabry Cedex, France

^*Electronic address: Carsten.Henkel@quantum.physik.uni-potsdam.de
^†Present address: Laboratoire d’études thermiques, ENSMA, 86960 Futuroscope Cedex, France.
^‡Present address: The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester New York 14627, USA.

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Vol. 69, Iss. 2 — February 2004

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