Casimir–Polder interaction between an atom and a cylinder with application to nanosystems

Abstract

Recently the Lifshitz theory of dispersion forces was extended for the case of an atom (molecule) interacting with a plane surface of a uniaxial crystal or with a long solid cylinder or cylindrical shell made of isotropic material or uniaxial crystal. The obtained results are applicable to nanosystems. In particular, we investigate the Casimir-Polder interaction between hydrogen atoms (molecules) and multi-wall carbon nanotubes. It is demonstrated that the hydrogen atoms located inside multiwall carbon nanotubes have a lower free energy compared to those located outside. We also perform comparison studies of the interaction of hydrogen atoms between themselves and with multi-wall carbon nanotube. The obtained results are important for the problem of hydrogen storage.

The Casimir force between real materials: Experiment and theory

“…For example, the multilayer graphite cylinder was considered as a simple model of a multiwalled carbon nanotube. Using this model, the Casimir-Polder interaction between hydrogen atoms (molecules) and multiwalled carbon nanotubes was investigated (Blagov et al, 2005;Klimchitskaya et al, 2006a). Later, Lifshitztype formulas have been obtained which describe the van der Waals and Casimir-Polder interaction between a graphene sheet and a material plate or a microparticle (Bordag et al, 2006) and a microparticle and a single-walled carbon nanotube (Blagov et al, 2007).…”

Enhancement of thermal Casimir-Polder potentials of ground-state polar molecules in a planar cavity

“…Casimir-Polder forces at thermal equilibrium have been commonly investigated in the linear-response formalism [2][3][4]. Studies of a wide range of geometries such as semi-infinite half spaces [2][3][4][5], thin plates [6,7], planar cavities [8], spheres and cylinders [9] as well as cylindrical shells [5,6,10] have revealed that thermal CP forces are typically attractive in the absence of magnetic effects.…”

Nanopropulsion from High-Energy Particle Beams via Dispersion Forces in Nanotubes

“…[196][197][198][199] Although reservations have been expressed about the reliability of this method for gap widths as small as the graphite interlayer distance, direct experience by this author shows that application of the Lifshitz theory to the interaction of multiwalled core and outer walls yields estimates of the retracting force in agreement with experimental data if the large uncertainty typical of such experiments at present is kept in proper consideration 301 (see Table 1 therein).…”

“…The above expression for U vdW, Lif includes neither the effect of finite thickness of the interacting slabs [196][197][198][199] nor of optical anisotropy. [200][201][202] For the moment, we shall assume that, from the standpoint of van der Waals energy computation, the nanotube geometry considered herein be equivalent to "wrapping" the standard parallel-plate system of the Lifshitz theory into two isotropic, concentric cylinders 137 with s/R OW , s/R core 1 ( Fig.…”

“…In the papers above, [196][197][198][199] the authors determined the needed dielectric functions numerically from tabulated spectral data by means of the Kramers-Kronig relation except at low frequencies, where analytical extrapolation was deemed necessary. Although this approach has its obvious strengths, an analytical representation of the dielectric functions is far more effective than a numerical one in exposing the effect of the modulation of any parameters on the performance of a nanodevice.…”