Integrated optical switches using mechano-optical sensing are gaining more attention in many fields due to their fast switching speed, large bandwidth and compact devices. In this paper, a micromachined electrostatically actuated metal plate to sense the evanescent field above the waveguide is presented. The feasibility of MEMS based light weight mechanical plates to achieve fast switching is e...

We study the influence of the shape of compact dimensions to the Casimir energy and Casimir force of a scalar field. We examine both the massive and the massless scalar field. The total spacetime topology is M D ×T 2 θ , where M D is the D dimensional Minkowski spacetime and T 2 θ the twisted torus described by R 1 , R 2 and θ. For the case R 1 = R 2 we found that the massive bulk scalar field ...

We study the thermal interaction between two nearby thin metallic wires, at finite temperature. It is shown that the Johnson currents in the wires give rise, via inductive coupling, to a repulsive force between them. This thermal interaction exhibits all the puzzling features found recently in the thermal Casimir effect for lossy metallic plates, suggesting that the physical origin of the diffi...

We study the Casimir problem for a fermion coupled to a static background field in one space dimension. We examine the relationship between interactions and boundary conditions for the Dirac field. In the limit that the background becomes concentrated at a point (a “Dirac spike”) and couples strongly, it implements a confining boundary condition. We compute the Casimir energy for a masslike bac...

We propose the use of a tunneling electromechanical transducer to dinamically detect Casimir forces between two conducting surfaces. The maximum distance for which Casimir forces should be detectable with our method is around 1μm, while the lower limit is given by the ability to approach the surfaces. This technique should permit to study gravitational forces on the same range of distances, as ...

We present improved worldline numerical algorithms for high-precision calculations of Casimir interaction energies induced by scalar-field fluctuations with Dirichlet boundary conditions for various Casimir geometries. Significant reduction of numerical cost is gained by exploiting the symmetries of the worldline ensemble in combination with those of the configurations. This facilitates high-pr...

We consider detailed roughness and conductivity corrections to the Casimir force in the recent Casimir force measurement employing an atomic force microscope. The roughness of the test bodies — a metal plate and a sphere — was investigated with the AFM and the SEM respectively. It consists of separate crystals of different heights and a stochastic background. The amplitude of roughness relative...

Let g be a complex simple Lie algebra. Vogel derived a universal decomposition of S2g into (possibly virtual) Casimir eigenspaces, S2g = C⊕Y2 ⊕Y ′ 2 ⊕Y ′′ 2 which turns out to be a decomposition into irreducible modules. If we let 2t denote the Casimir eigenvalue of the adjoint representation (with respect to some invariant quadratic form), these modules respectively have Casimir eigenvalues 4t...

We analyze pull-in instability of electrostatically actuated microelectromechanical systems, and study changes in pull-in parameters due to the Casimir effect. When the size of the device is reduced, the magnitude of the Casimir force is comparable with that of the Coulomb force and it significantly alters pull-in parameters. We model the deformable conductor as an elastic membrane and consider...

The Casimir energy of a dilute homogeneous nonmagnetic dielectric ball at zero temperature is derived analytically for the first time for an arbitrary physically possible frequency dispersion of dielectric permittivity ε(iω). A microscopic model of dielectrics is considered, divergences are absent in calculations because an average interatomic distance λ is a physical cut-off in the theory. Thi...