Casimir-Lifshitz Interaction between Dielectric Heterostructures

The interaction between arbitrary dielectric heterostructures is studied within the framework of a recently developed dielectric contrast perturbation theory. It is shown that periodically patterned dielectric or metallic structures lead to oscillatory lateral Casimir-Lifshitz forces, as well as modulations in the normal force as they are displaced with respect to one another. The strength of these oscillatory contributions increases with decreasing gap size and increasing contrast in the dielectric properties of the materials used in the heterostructures.