Nanoscale Levitation – Repulsive Casimir Force Verified
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The cover story of the Jan 8, 2009 Nature journal states that “the experimental verification that a bizarre quantum effect — the Casimir force — can manifest itself in its repulsive form is pivotal not only for fundamental physics but also for nanotechnology.”
The Casimir effect creates a force that we don’t experience in the macroworld of humans, but in the nanoworld of nanomaterials and nanomachines this quantum effect causes objects to be either repelled or attracted to each other. When causing attraction the Casimir effect can be a problem, causing nanomaterials or nanoparticles to get stuck together when you don’t want them to. Yet the repulsive force may be quite useful for the application of nanoscale levitation and zero friction.
According to an article from Scientific American:
“The repulsion can be used to hold molecules aloft, in essence levitating them, creating virtually friction-free parts for tiny devices, the researchers said.”
For those who want to know more, there is quite a bit of information available on the web. A good starting point is an easy to understand article from the economist which states:
CAN something come of nothing? Philosophers debated that question for millennia before physics came up with the answer—and that answer is yes. For quantum theory has shown that a vacuum (ie, nothing) only appears to be empty space. Actually, it is full of virtual particles of matter and their anti-matter equivalents, which, in obedience to Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, flit in and out of existence so fast that they cannot usually be seen.
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Earlier the Hub reported on a significant reduction in the strength of the Casimir attraction.
The homepage for the Capasso group at Harvard that produced this research can be found here.
A Gedanken Spacecraft has been proposed that could theoretically propel itself using the quantum vacuum (Dynamic Casimir effect). It is just a proposal with many limitations, but still fun to think about.
As usual, Wikipedia turns out to be a good source for more information as well.
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