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Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 101801 (2002) [4 pages]

Demonstration of the Lateral Casimir Force
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F. Chen and U. Mohideen *
Department of Physics, University of California, Riverside, California 92521

G. L. Klimchitskaya and V. M. Mostepanenko
Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, C.P. 5008, CEP 58059-970, João Pessoa, Pb-Brazil

Received 26 November 2001; published 25 February 2002

The lateral Casimir force between a sinusoidally corrugated gold coated plate and large sphere was measured for surface separations between 0.2 to 0.3 μm using an atomic force microscope. The measured force shows the required periodicity corresponding to the corrugations. It also exhibits the necessary inverse fourth power distance dependence. The obtained results are shown to be in good agreement with a complete theory taking into account the imperfectness of the boundary metal. This demonstration opens new opportunities for the use of the Casimir effect for lateral translation in microelectromechanical systems.


©2002 The American Physical Society

URL: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v88/e101801
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.88.101801
PACS: 12.20.Fv

* Email address: umar.mohideen@ucr.edu

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