Giant Casimir Torque between Rotated Gratings and the θ=0 Anomaly.
Phys Rev Lett
; 124(1): 013903, 2020 Jan 10.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31976735
We study the Casimir torque between two metallic one-dimensional gratings rotated by an angle θ with respect to each other. We find that, for infinitely extended gratings, the Casimir energy is anomalously discontinuous at θ=0, due to a critical zero-order geometric transition between a 2D- and a 1D-periodic system. This transition is a peculiarity of the grating geometry and does not exist for intrinsically anisotropic materials. As a remarkable practical consequence, for finite-size gratings, the torque per area can reach extremely large values, increasing without bounds with the size of the system. We show that for finite gratings with only ten period repetitions, the maximum torque is already 60 times larger than the one predicted in the case of infinite gratings. These findings pave the way to the design of a contactless quantum vacuum torsional spring, with possible relevance to micro- and nanomechanical devices.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Tipo de estudio:
Prognostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Phys Rev Lett
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Francia
Pais de publicación:
Estados Unidos