Proposal for measurement of repulsive Casimir forces using silicon membranes

Abstract

We present a procedure to measure the Casimir forces, a direct manifestation of boundary dependence of quantum vacuum due to the alteration by the boundaries of the zero‐point electromagnetic energy, using MEMS. Our approach is based on the measurement of the frequency shift of a silicon membrane caused by Casimir forces. We present theoretically computations of that frequency shift using the Anharmonic Casmir Oscillator model for different experimental configurations. Our main aim is to measure the repulsive Casimir forces using geometric approach and use these repulsive forces to minimize the sticktion of MEMS. (© 2010 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Repulsive Casimir force between silicon dioxide and superconductor

“…Obviously, the stable position can be varied by changing the size of the bodies, the thickness and the temperature. Vidal et al 20 proposed the measurement of Casimir forces using a tiny spring in order to get a balanced position and oscillation frequency. However, in our case, the equilibrium positions exist naturally.…”

“…In Ref. [20], authors presented the proposal for measuring the Casimir force with the presence of a tiny spring in order to get a balanced position and the oscillation frequency. However, in this case, the equilibrium positions exist naturely.…”