Fluid-sensitive nanoscale switching with quantum levitation controlled by α -Sn/ β -Sn phase transition

Abstract

We analyse the Lifshitz pressure between silica and tin separated by a liquid mixture of bromobenzene and chlorobenzene. We show that the phase transition from semimetallic α-Sn to metallic β-Sn can switch Lifshitz forces from repulsive to attractive. This effect is caused by the difference in dielectric functions of α-Sn and β-Sn, giving both attractive and repulsive contributions to the total Lifshitz pressure at different frequency regions controlled by the composition of the intervening liquid mixture. In this way, one may be able to produce phase transition-controlled quantum levitation in liquid medium.

In situstudy of theα-Sn toβ-Sn phase transition in low-dimensional systems: Phonon behavior and thermodynamic properties

“…The structural phase transition in tin has received a lot of theoretical [6][7][8][9][10][11] and experimental [4,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] attention. According to theoretical calculations, the phase transition in tin is entropy mediated; that is, above a certain temperature the entropy of the β-Sn phase is large enough to overcome the difference in internal energy between αand β-Sn, so that β-Sn becomes the stable phase.…”

Nontrivial retardation effects in dispersion forces: From anomalous distance dependence to novel traps

“…Refs. [2,17,19,20,23,30,43]) to a more general case where retarded dispersion forces can reveal a very complex behaviour in media. For this reason, considerations of retardation effects are important for medium-assisted dispersion force experiments, for example Casimir experiments [16,23,43]; medium-assisted optical tweezers [44]; colloidal systems [45]; and in future measurements of the Casimir torque in a medium [46,47].…”

“…Thus, to introduce a scalable parameter for tuning the trap, we consider in our final example a two-component fluid surrounding the particle. For the dielectric functions of mixtures between fluid 1 (ε 1 ) in fluid 2 (ε 2 ) we use a Lorentz-Lorenz model [19,39,40], where we introduce the volume fraction p of fluid 1 in fluid 2. We chose the liquids bromobenzene and methanol in front of a polystyrene surface [17] as the dielectric function of the latter lies between both fluids.…”

“…They can under certain conditions become repulsive [16,17]. Such repulsive forces can be balanced with other forces, such as buoyancy [18,19], to stabilise a particle's position. Recently, a remarkable Lifshitz force induced trapping was experimentally observed exploiting a layered medium where short range repulsion was caused by a thin film coating, while larger distances were dominated by the underlying bulk material leading to attraction [20].…”

Trapping of Gas Bubbles in Water at a Finite Distance below a Water–Solid Interface

“…The Lifshitz (van der Waals) forces that are at play in a system like the one here proposed, can be either attractive or repulsive as was known already to the pioneers . 7 This has been demonstrated many times both theoretically [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] and experimentally 4,18-25 in a variety of schemes. What is more fascinating is the fact that equilibrium between repulsive (downward) Lifshitz forces and attractive (upward) buoyancy might cause stable trapping of gas bubbles under water-solid interfaces at distances easily accessible experimentally.…”