No anomalous scaling in electrostatic calibrations for Casimir force measurements

Comment on “Anomalies in electrostatic calibrations for the measurement of the Casimir force in a sphere-plane geometry”

Casimir force and in situ surface potential measurements on nanomembranes.

We present Casimir force measurements in a sphere-plate configuration that consists of a high quality nanomembrane resonator and a millimeter sized gold coated sphere. The nanomembrane is fabricated from stoichiometric silicon nitride metallized with gold. A Kelvin probe method is used in situ to image the surface potentials to minimize the distance-dependent residual force. Resonance-enhanced ...

The effect of patch potentials in Casimir force measurements determined by heterodyne Kelvin probe force microscopy.

Measurements of the Casimir force require the elimination of the electrostatic force between the surfaces. However, due to electrostatic patch potentials, the voltage required to minimize the total force may not be sufficient to completely nullify the electrostatic interaction. Thus, these surface potential variations cause an additional force, which can obscure the Casimir force signal. In thi...

Anomalous temperature dependence of the Casimir force for thin metal films.

Within the framework of the Drude dispersive model, we predict an unusual nonmonotonic temperature dependence of the Casimir force for thin metal films. For certain conditions, this force decreases with temperature due to the decrease of the metallic conductivity, whereas the force increases at high temperatures due to the increase of the thermal radiation pressure. We consider the attraction o...

Casimir force changes sign.

that the quantum fluctuations of an electromagnetic field, so-called zero-point fluctuations, give rise to an attractive force between objects 1. This force is a particularly striking consequence of the quantum theory of electrodynamics (for a review, see ref. 2). Casimir's calculations were idealized — he considered two perfectly conducting parallel plates at absolute-zero temperature — but th...