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- Bao, Fanglin, et al.
(författare)
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Inhomogeneity-Induced Casimir Transport of Nanoparticles
- 2018
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Ingår i: Physical Review Letters. - : American Physical Society. - 0031-9007 .- 1079-7114. ; 121:13
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We propose a scheme for transporting nanoparticles immersed in a fluid, relying on quantum vacuum fluctuations. The mechanism lies in the inhomogeneity-induced lateral Casimir force between a nanoparticle and a gradient metasurface and the relaxation of the conventional Dzyaloshinskii-Lifshitz-Pitaevskii constraint, which allows quantum levitation for a broader class of material configurations. The velocity for a nanosphere levitated above a grating is calculated and can be up to a few microns per minute. The Born approximation gives general expressions for the Casimir energy which reveal size-selective transport. For any given metasurface, a certain particle-metasurface separation exists where the transport velocity peaks, forming a "Casimir passage." The sign and strength of the Casimir interactions can be tuned by the shapes of liquid-air menisci, potentially allowing real-time control of an otherwise passive force, and enabling interesting on-off or directional switching of the transport process.
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