The electromagnetic Casimir interaction between two spheres is studied within the scattering approach using the plane-wave basis. It is demonstrated that the proximity force approximation (PFA) corresponds to the specular-reflection limit of Mie scattering. Using the leading-order semiclassical WKB approximation for the direct reflection term in the Debye expansion for the scattering amplitudes, we prove that PFA provides the correct leading-order divergence for arbitrary materials and temperatures in the sphere-sphere and the plane-sphere geometry. Our derivation implies that only a small section around the points of closest approach between the interacting spherical surfaces contributes in the PFA regime. The corresponding characteristic length scale is estimated from the width of the Gaussian integrand obtained within the saddle-point approximation. At low temperatures, the area relevant for the thermal corrections is much larger than the area contributing to the zero-temperature result.

We derive the leading-order correction to the proximity force approximation (PFA) result for the electromagnetic Casimir interaction in the plane-sphere geometry by developing the scattering approach in the plane-wave basis. Expressing the Casimir energy as a sum over round trips between plane and sphere, we find two distinct contributions to the correction. The first one results from the variation of the Mie reflection operator, calculated within the geometric optical WKB approximation, over the narrow Fourier interval associated to specular reflection at the vicinity of the point of closest approach on the spherical surface. The second contribution, accounting for roughly 90% of the total correction, results from the modification of the geometric optical WKB Mie scattering amplitude due to diffraction. Our derivation provides a clear physical understanding of the nature of the PFA correction for spherical surfaces.http://dx.

We consider the Casimir interaction energy between a plane and a sphere of radius R at finite temperature T as a function of the distance of closest approach L. Typical experimental conditions are such that the thermal wavelength λT=ℏc/kBT satisfies the condition L≪λT≪R. We derive the leading correction to the proximity-force approximation valid for such intermediate temperatures by developing the scattering formula in the plane-wave basis. Our analytical result captures the joint effect of the spherical geometry and temperature and is written as a sum of temperature-dependent logarithmic terms. Surprisingly, two of the logarithmic terms arise from the Matsubara zero-frequency contribution.