Engineers Unveil First Casimir Chip That Exploits The Vacuum Energy Date: Thursday, August 02, 2012 @ 21:45:41 UTC Topic: Devices
Nanofabrication engineers have built the first on-chip device that exploits the Casimir effect
One of the strangest effects to arise from the quantum nature of the
universe is the Casimir force. This pushes two parallel conducting
plates together when they are just a few dozen nanometres apart.
At these kinds of scales, the Casimir force can dominate and
engineers are well aware of its unwanted effects. One reason why
microelectromechanical machines have never reached their original
promise is the stiction that Casimir forces can generate.
Nanofabrication engineers have built the first on-chip device that exploits the Casimir effect