| Description |
TITLE: CASIMIR CAVITY PHYSICS WITH MEMS: FORCE MEASUREMENTS AND DETECTING THE CASIMIR ENERGY
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 even when they are not electrically charged. Additionally, the lower density of electromagnetic modes inside the cavity compared to outside is thought to result in a “negative energy density,” however this has never been proven experimentally. Due to the small scale of this effect, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are used to investigate the forces and energies which arise between these conductive surfaces. This dissertation presents measurements of the Casimir force using a modified commercial accelerometer as well as a novel chip-scale
system for Casimir Energy detection using a thin-film superconductor in a tunable nanocavity.
COMMITTEE: ADVISOR
David J. Bishop, MSE/ME; David K. Campbell, MSE, ECE, Physics; Thomas Bifano, MSE, ME, BME; Alice White, MSE, ME, BME, Physics; CHAIR: Dan Cole, ME |
