Coupled surface polaritons and the Casimir force
- 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
| Author details: | Carsten HenkelORCiDGND, Karl Joulain, J. P. Mulet, Jean-Jacques GreffetORCiD |
|---|---|
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Year of first publication: | 2004 |
| Publication year: | 2004 |
| Release date: | 2017/03/24 |
| Source: | Physical review / A. - 69 (2004), Feb., Art. No. 023808 |
| Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Physik und Astronomie |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
| Institution name at the time of the publication: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Physik |
