Surface Plasmon Modes and the Casimir Energy

F. Intravaia and A. Lambrecht
Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 110404 – Published 23 March 2005

Abstract

We show the influence of surface plasmons on the Casimir effect between two plane parallel metallic mirrors at arbitrary distances. Using the plasma model to describe the optical response of the metal, we express the Casimir energy as a sum of contributions associated with evanescent surface plasmon modes and propagative cavity modes. In contrast to naive expectations, the plasmonic mode contribution is essential at all distances in order to ensure the correct result for the Casimir energy. One of the two plasmonic modes gives rise to a repulsive contribution, balancing out the attractive contributions from propagating cavity modes, while both contributions taken separately are much larger than the actual value of the Casimir energy. This also suggests possibilities to tailor the sign of the Casimir force via surface plasmons.

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  • Received 13 December 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.110404

©2005 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

F. Intravaia and A. Lambrecht

  • Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel UPMC/ENS/CNRS case 74, Campus Jussieu, F75252 Paris CEDEX 05, France

Comments & Replies

Intravala and Lambrecht Reply:

F. Intravaia and A. Lambrecht
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 218902 (2006)

Comment on “Surface Plasmon Modes and the Casimir Energy”

Zdravko Lenac
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 218901 (2006)

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Vol. 94, Iss. 11 — 25 March 2005

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