Demonstration of the Lateral Casimir Force

Abstract

The lateral Casimir force between a sinusoidally corrugated gold coated plate and large sphere was measured for surface separations between 0.2 $μ$m to 0.3 $μ$m using an atomic force microscope. The measured force shows the required periodicity corresponding to the corrugations. It also exhibits the necessary inverse fourth power distance dependence. The obtained results are shown to be in good agreement with a complete theory taking into account the imperfectness of the boundary metal. This demonstration opens new opportunities for the use of the Casimir effect for lateral translation in microelectromechanical systems.

6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett