Related papers: Critical Casimir forces steered by patterned subst…
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the phase behavior of a binary mixture of colloids with opposite adsorption preferences in a critical solvent. As a result of the attractive and repulsive critical Casimir forces, the…
Fluctuation-induced forces occur generically when long-ranged correlations (e.g., in fluids) are confined by external bodies. In classical systems, such correlations require specific conditions, e.g., a medium close to a critical point. On…
Confining in space the equilibrium fluctuations of statistical systems with long-range correlations is known to result into effective forces on the boundaries. Here we demonstrate the occurrence of Casimir-like forces in the non-equilibrium…
The spatial suppression of order parameter fluctuations in a critical media produces Critical Casimir forces acting on confining surfaces. This scenario is realized in a critical binary mixture near the demixing transition point that…
We study the behavior of fluids, confined by geometrically structured substrates, upon approaching a critical point at T = Tc in their bulk phase diagram. As generic substrate structures periodic arrays of wedges and ridges are considered.…
The Casimir force between two ideal conducting surfaces is a special (zero temperature) limit of a more general theory due to Lifshitz. The temperature dependent theory includes correlations in coupled quantum and classical fluctuation…
We study critical Casimir forces between planar walls and geometrically structured substrates within mean-field theory. As substrate structures, crenellated surfaces consisting of periodic arrays of rectangular crenels and merlons are…
We investigate the phase behaviour of mixtures of two populations of colloidal particles dispersed in a binary solvent system near its critical composition. The surfaces of particles are chemically modified to elicit a specific solvent…
Based on renormalization group concepts and explicit mean field calculations we study the universal contribution to the effective force and torque acting on an ellipsoidal colloidal particle which is dissolved in a critical fluid and is…
The force experienced by objects embedded in a correlated medium undergoing thermal fluctuations--the so-called fluctuation--induced force--is actually itself a fluctuating quantity. We compute the corresponding probability distribution and…
Using field-theoretical methods and exploiting conformal invariance, we study Casimir forces at tricritical points exerted by long-range fluctuations of the order-parameter field. Special attention is paid to the situation where the…
From experimental studies it is well-known that colloidal particles suspended in a near-critical binary solvent exhibit interesting aggregation phenomena, often associated with colloidal phase transitions, and assumed to be driven by…
We study the spatial fluctuations of the Casimir-Polder force experienced by an atom or a small sphere moved above a metallic plate at fixed separation distance. We demonstrate that unlike the mean force, the magnitude of these fluctuations…
We study systems in which both long-ranged van der Waals and critical Casimir interactions are present. We study the interplay between these forces, as well as the {\it total} force (TF) between a spherical colloid particle and a thick…
Systems as diverse as binary mixtures and inclusions in biological membranes, and many more, can be described effectively by interacting spins. When the critical fluctuations in these systems are constrained by boundary conditions, critical…
We develop a computational study of Casimir forces between three dimensional (3D) finite objects with an internal granular structure. The objects in the model consist of a finite arrangement of nanometer sized spherical particles having a…
Electromagnetic fluctuation-induced forces between atoms and surfaces are generally known as Casimir-Polder interactions. The exact knowledge of these forces is rapidly becoming important in modern experimental set-ups and for technological…
Using general scaling arguments combined with mean-field theory we investigate the critical ($T \simeq T_c$) and off-critical ($T\ne T_c$) behavior of the Casimir forces in fluid films of thickness $L$ governed by dispersion forces and…
Quantum electrodynamic fluctuations cause an attractive force between metallic surfaces. At separations where the finite speed of light affects the interaction, it is called the Casimir force. Thermal motion determines the fundamental…
Quantum fluctuations give rise to van der Waals and Casimir forces that dominate the interaction between electrically neutral objects at sub-micron separations. Under the trend of miniaturization, such quantum electrodynamical effects are…