Published September 4, 2009 | Version v1
Journal article

Repulsive Casimir Force in Chiral Metamaterials

  • 1. Applied Optics Beijing Area Major Laboratory, Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875 (China)
  • 2. Ames Laboratory and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011 (United States)
  • 3. Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, FORTH, and Department of Materials Science and Technology, University of Crete, 71110 Heraklion, Crete (Greece)
  • 4. Department of Computational and Data Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia 22030 (United States)

Description

We demonstrate theoretically that one can obtain repulsive Casimir forces and stable nanolevitations by using chiral metamaterials. By extending the Lifshitz theory to treat chiral metamaterials, we find that a repulsive force and a minimum of the interaction energy possibly exist for strong chirality, under realistic frequency dependencies and correct limiting values (for zero and infinite frequencies) of the permittivity, permeability, and chiral coefficients.

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Physical Review Letters
Journal Volume
103
Journal Issue
10
Journal Page Range
p. 103602-103602.4
ISSN
0031-9007
CODEN
PRLTAO

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
41083772
Subject category
S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS;
Descriptors DEI
CASIMIR EFFECT; CHIRALITY; INTERACTIONS; PERMEABILITY; PERMITTIVITY
Descriptors DEC
DIELECTRIC PROPERTIES; ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES; PARTICLE PROPERTIES; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Optional Information

Notes
(c) 2009 The American Physical Society