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Casimir forces in microelectromechanical systems
The Casimir force is the attraction between two neutral metallic surfaces arising from the changes in the zero point energy of the electromagnetic field. Prof. Chan and his collaborators at Bell Labs demonstrated that the motion of a MEMS torsional device can be created solely based on this quantum electrodynamical effect.
Prof. Chan’s group is now investigating the Casimir force between an array of high aspect ratio trenches and a spherical surface.
This work is supported by Department of Energy and NSF-DMR-0414595.