Building a Casimir metrology platform with a commercial MEMS sensor

The Casimir Effect is a physical manifestation of quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic vacuum. When two metal plates are placed close 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 (or d−3 for a spherical-planar geometry) even when they are not electrically charged. In this paper, we observe the Casimir Effect in ambient conditions using a modified capacitive micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) sensor. Using a feedback-assisted pick-and-place assembly process, we are able to attach various microstructures onto the post-release MEMS, converting it from an inertial force sensor to a direct force measurement platform with pN (piconewton) resolution. With this system we are able to directly measure the Casimir force between a silver-coated microsphere and gold-coated silicon plate. This device is a step towards leveraging the Casimir Effect for cheap, sensitive, room temperature quantum metrology.Micro-electromechanical Systems: Applying the Casimir effect in a commercial sensorThe Casimir effect is a quantum fluctuation force that exists between conducting surfaces separated by hundreds of nanometers, and the effect holds promise for application as a sensing tool in conjunction with an inexpensive micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) device. A team headed by Alexander Stange in the Bishop group at Boston University, United States, observed the Casimir effect under ambient conditions using a modified off-the-shelf MEMS sensor. The authors were able to integrate a Casimir cavity with the MEMS device by attaching various microstructures onto the MEMS sensor, converting it into a customized force measurement platform. The team believes that the Casimir effect has considerable potential as a practical, controllable sensing tool and that it could be used for such purposes as temperature sensing, AC voltage measurements, and low-impedance current measurements.

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