Abstract
The onset of retardation effects in atom-wall interactions is studied. It is shown that the transition range from the 1/z3 short-range (van der Waals) interaction to the 1/z4 long-range (Casimir) retarded interaction critically depends on the atomic properties and on the dielectric function of the material. For simple non-alkali-metal atoms (e.g., ground-state hydrogen and ground-state helium) interacting with typical dielectric materials such as intrinsic silicon, the transition to the retarded regime is shown to proceed at a distance of about 10 nm (200 Bohr radii). This is much shorter than typical characteristic absorption wavelengths of solids. Larger transition regimes are obtained for atoms with a large static polarizability such as metastable helium. We present a simple estimate for the critical distance, zcr=137α(0)/Z atomic units, where α(0) is the static polarizability (expressed in atomic units) and Z is the number of electrons of the atom.
Recommended Citation
T. Das et al., "Retardation Effects In Atom-Wall Interactions," Physical Review A, vol. 109, no. 2, article no. 022808, American Physical Society, Feb 2024.
The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.109.022808
Department(s)
Physics
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
2469-9934; 2469-9926
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2024 American Physical Society, All rights reserved.
Publication Date
01 Feb 2024
Comments
National Science Foundation, Grant DMR–2149082