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arXiv · 1810.09295

Building a Casimir Metrology Platform with a Commercial MEMS Accelerometer

Alexander Stange·Matthias Imboden·Josh Javor·Lawrence K. Barrett·David J. Bishop
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Abstract

The Casimir Effect is a physical manifestation of quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum. When two metal plates are placed closely together, typically much less than a micron, the long wavelength modes between them are frozen out, giving rise to a net attractive force between the plates, scaling as d^-4 (or d^-3 for a spherical-planar geometry) even when they are not electrically charged. In this paper we observe the Casimir Effect in ambient conditions using a modified capacitive MEMS accelerometer. Using a feedback assisted pick-and-place assembly process we are able to attach various micro-structures onto the post-release MEMS, converting it from an inertial force sensor to a direct force measurement platform with pN resolution. With this system we are able to directly measure the Casimir force between a silver-coated microsphere and gold-coated silicon plate. This device is a step towards leveraging the Casimir Effect for cheap, sensitive, room temperature quantum metrology.

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Alexander Stange, Matthias Imboden, Josh Javor, Lawrence K. Barrett, David J. Bishop. 2018-10-22. Building a Casimir Metrology Platform with a Commercial MEMS Accelerometer. https://arxiv.org/abs/1810.09295

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