Hannover 2016 – scientific programme

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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik

Q 58: Poster: Quantum Optics and Photonics IV

Q 58.2: Poster

Thursday, March 3, 2016, 16:30–19:00, Empore Lichthof

Casimir-Polder Interaction and Matter Wave Scattering — •Joshua Hemmerich and Stefan Buhmann — Physikalisches Institut Universität Freiburg, Germany

The interaction between electromagnetically neutral objects, atoms or molecules, has been a subject of study for more than a century. Often known as van der Waals force, this interaction can be formally understood within the context of quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. We review the perturbative calculation of a general exression for the attractive Casimir-Polder potential for an atom interacting with an arbitrarily shaped dielectric body and apply it to the case of a dielectric sphere. The asymptotic behavior of this expression in the nonretarded and retarded limits, for small and large sphere radii and for a perfectly conducting sphere agrees with well-known historical results. We present numerical results for the interaction between a ground-state indium atom and a silicon-dioxide sphere. The results are used to study the impact of the Casimir-Polder force on matter-wave scattering. We are specifically interested in observations regarding the Poisson spot, where precise experiments are shown to lead to direct evidence of such an attractive Casimir-Polder potential.