Observation and control of Casimir effects in a sphere-plate-sphere system

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 6148
• Main Authors: Xu, Zhujing, Ju, Peng, Gao, Xingyu, Shen, Kunhong, Jacob, Zubin, Li, Tongcang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 18-10-2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/624/400/482; 639/766/400/482; 639/766/483/3925; 639/925/927/359; Cantilever plates; Data processing; Humanities and Social Sciences; Information processing; Microspheres; multidisciplinary; Photons; Quantum field theory; Quantum theory; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Semiconductor devices; Transistors
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33915-4

A remarkable prediction of quantum field theory is that there are quantum electromagnetic fluctuations (virtual photons) everywhere, which leads to the intriguing Casimir effect. While the Casimir force between two objects has been studied extensively for several decades, the Casimir force between three objects has not been measured yet. Here, we report the experimental demonstration of an object under the Casimir force exerted by two other objects simultaneously. Our Casimir system consists of a micrometer-thick cantilever placed in between two microspheres, forming a unique sphere-plate-sphere geometry. We also propose and demonstrate a three-terminal switchable architecture exploiting opto-mechanical Casimir interactions that can lay the foundations of a Casimir transistor. Beyond the paradigm of Casimir forces between two objects in different geometries, our Casimir transistor represents an important development for controlling three-body virtual photon interactions and will have potential applications in sensing and information processing.
Experimental studies of the Casimir effect have involved only interactions between two bodies so far. Here, the authors observe a micrometer-thick cantilever under the Casimir force exerted by microspheres from two sides simultaneously.