Abstract

Experimental studies of the atom-surface or surface-surface interactions provide a physical insight on the interaction of quantum bodies with the fluctuating vacuum. They can be of great practical interest in the ever expanding field of nanotechnologies. In particular the dependence of the Casimir and Casimir-Polder interaction on the thermal fluctuations is a fundamental effect that could in the future provide a useful knob for tuning these interactions. Temperature effects are usually very small and have so far been observed on a BEC placed 6–10 µm away from a fused-silica substrate [1] due to an out of thermal equilibrium enhancement.

© 2013 IEEE