Hannover 2003 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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Q: Quantenoptik

Q 30: Poster: Quanteneffekte

Q 30.7: Poster

Dienstag, 25. März 2003, 16:30–18:30, Lichthof

Analytical and numerical calculation of three-dimensional Casimir force between dispersing and absorbing multilayer dielectrics — •Christian Raabe, Ludwig Knöll, and Dirk-Gunnar Welsch — Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, D-07743 Jena, Germany

On the basis of quantization of the (macroscopic) electromagnetic field in causal media, we have calculated the Casimir force between dispersing and absorbing (planar) multilayer dielectrics. The results extend the recently derived zero-temperature expression [M.S. Tomaš, Phys. Rev. A 66, 052103 (2002)] to finite temperatures, whereas for semi-infinite walls Lifshitz’ formula is recovered. In the zero-temperature limit, we have studied the problem of asymptotic distance laws of the Casimir force. We have shown that Lifshitz’ approximation for short distances also applies to multilayered walls. Depending on the wall structure, the distance law can drastically change with increasing wall separation. In particular, for two single-slab walls the Casimir force behaves as d⁻⁶ in place of d⁻⁴ as the wall separation d goes to infinity. Numerical results reveal that for complex heterostructures results from 1D theories only roughly reflect the dependence of the Casimir force on the wall separation.