Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip
Quantum fluctuations give rise to van der Waals and Casimir forces that dominate the interaction between electrically neutral objects at sub-micron separations. Under the trend of miniaturization, such quantum electrodynamical effects are expected to play an important role in micro- and nano-mechani...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
Nature Publishing Group
2016
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105362 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-4967 |
| _version_ | 1811070746050428928 |
|---|---|
| author | Zou, J. Marcet, Z. Kravchenko, I. I. Lu, T. Bao, Y. Chan, H. B. Rodriguez, Alejandro Reid, McMahon Thomas Homer McCauley, Alexander Patrick Johnson, Steven G |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics Zou, J. Marcet, Z. Kravchenko, I. I. Lu, T. Bao, Y. Chan, H. B. Rodriguez, Alejandro Reid, McMahon Thomas Homer McCauley, Alexander Patrick Johnson, Steven G |
| author_sort | Zou, J. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Quantum fluctuations give rise to van der Waals and Casimir forces that dominate the interaction between electrically neutral objects at sub-micron separations. Under the trend of miniaturization, such quantum electrodynamical effects are expected to play an important role in micro- and nano-mechanical devices. Nevertheless, utilization of Casimir forces on the chip level remains a major challenge because all experiments so far require an external object to be manually positioned close to the mechanical element. Here by integrating a force-sensing micromechanical beam and an electrostatic actuator on a single chip, we demonstrate the Casimir effect between two micromachined silicon components on the same substrate. A high degree of parallelism between the two near-planar interacting surfaces can be achieved because they are defined in a single lithographic step. Apart from providing a compact platform for Casimir force measurements, this scheme also opens the possibility of tailoring the Casimir force using lithographically defined components of non-conventional shapes. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:40:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/105362 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T08:40:54Z |
| publishDate | 2016 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1053622022-09-30T10:30:50Z Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip Zou, J. Marcet, Z. Kravchenko, I. I. Lu, T. Bao, Y. Chan, H. B. Rodriguez, Alejandro Reid, McMahon Thomas Homer McCauley, Alexander Patrick Johnson, Steven G Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics Rodriguez, Alejandro Reid, McMahon Thomas Homer McCauley, Alexander Patrick Johnson, Steven G Quantum fluctuations give rise to van der Waals and Casimir forces that dominate the interaction between electrically neutral objects at sub-micron separations. Under the trend of miniaturization, such quantum electrodynamical effects are expected to play an important role in micro- and nano-mechanical devices. Nevertheless, utilization of Casimir forces on the chip level remains a major challenge because all experiments so far require an external object to be manually positioned close to the mechanical element. Here by integrating a force-sensing micromechanical beam and an electrostatic actuator on a single chip, we demonstrate the Casimir effect between two micromachined silicon components on the same substrate. A high degree of parallelism between the two near-planar interacting surfaces can be achieved because they are defined in a single lithographic step. Apart from providing a compact platform for Casimir force measurements, this scheme also opens the possibility of tailoring the Casimir force using lithographically defined components of non-conventional shapes. United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (contract N66001-09-1-2070- DOD) Singapore-MIT Alliance. Program in Computational Engineering 2016-11-18T18:08:47Z 2016-11-18T18:08:47Z 2013-05 2012-11 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2041-1723 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105362 Zou, J. et al. “Casimir Forces on a Silicon Micromechanical Chip.” Nature Communications 4 (2013): 1845. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-4967 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2842 Nature Communications Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf Nature Publishing Group arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Zou, J. Marcet, Z. Kravchenko, I. I. Lu, T. Bao, Y. Chan, H. B. Rodriguez, Alejandro Reid, McMahon Thomas Homer McCauley, Alexander Patrick Johnson, Steven G Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip |
| title | Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip |
| title_full | Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip |
| title_fullStr | Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip |
| title_full_unstemmed | Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip |
| title_short | Casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip |
| title_sort | casimir forces on a silicon micromechanical chip |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/105362 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-4967 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT zouj casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT marcetz casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT kravchenkoii casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT lut casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT baoy casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT chanhb casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT rodriguezalejandro casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT reidmcmahonthomashomer casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT mccauleyalexanderpatrick casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip AT johnsonsteveng casimirforcesonasiliconmicromechanicalchip |