Measurement of Casimir-Polder interaction for slow atoms through a material grating

authored by

Julien Lecoffre, Ayoub Hadi, Matthieu Bruneau, Charles Garcion, Nathalie Fabre, Éric Charron, Naceur Gaaloul, Gabriel Dutier, Quentin Bouton

Abstract

We present a method utilizing atomic diffraction patterns and statistical analysis tools to infer the Casimir-Polder interaction between argon atoms and a silicon nitride nanograting. The quantum model that supports the data is investigated in detail, as are the roles of nanograting geometry, finite-size effects, slit width opening angles, Lennard-Jones potentials, and patch potentials. Our findings indicate that the atom-surface potential strength parameter is C3=6.9±1.2meVnm3. This value is primarily constrained by the knowledge of the nanograting geometry. The high sensitivity of our method paves the way for precise determination of the Casimir-Polder potential and exploration of new short-distance forces.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Quantum Optics

External Organisation(s)

Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (LPL)
Universite Paris-Sud XI

Type

Article

Journal

Physical Review Research

Volume

7

ISSN

2643-1564

Publication date

03.03.2025

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Physics and Astronomy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.7.013232 (Access: Open)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.14077 (Access: Open)