Abstract
The lateral Casimir-Polder force between an atom and a corrugated surface should allow one to study experimentally nontrivial geometrical effects in the electromagnetic quantum vacuum. Here, we derive the theoretical expression of this force in the scattering approach. We show that large corrections to the “proximity force approximation” could be measured using present-day technology with a Bose-Einstein condensate used as a vacuum field sensor.
- Received 13 September 2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.040405
©2008 American Physical Society