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2017 | Book

Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

Electromagnetic Fluctuations at the Nanoscale

Theory and Applications

Authors: Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Book Series : NanoScience and Technology

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik"

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About this book

This book provides a general formalism for the calculation of the spectral correlation function for the fluctuating electromagnetic field. The procedure is applied to the radiative heat transfer and the van der Waals friction using both the semi-classical theory of the fluctuating electromagnetic field and quantum field theory. Applications of the radiative heat transfer and non-contact friction to scanning probe spectroscopy are presented. The theory gives a tentative explanation for the experimental non-contact friction data.
The book explains that radiative heat transfer and the van der Waals friction are largely enhanced at short separations between the bodies due to the evanescent electromagnetic waves. Particular strong enhancement occurs if the surfaces of the bodies can support localized surface modes like surface plasmons, surface polaritons or adsorbate vibrational modes. An electromagnetic field outside a moving body can also be created by static charges which are always present on the surface of the body due to inhomogeneities, or due to a bias voltage. This electromagnetic field produces electrostatic friction which can be significantly enhanced if on the surface of the body there is a 2D electron or hole system or an incommensurate adsorbed layer of ions exhibiting acoustic vibrations.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. Introduction
Abstract
Electromagnetic fluctuations are related to one of the most fundamental phenomena in nature, namely Brownian motion. In [1–4], the nature of this motion is discussed, and its statistical features are investigated. Studies of the thermal radiation from materials have played an important role in the history of physics.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 2. Surface Electromagnetic Waves
Abstract
As will be shown in the subsequent sections, reflection and emission of electromagnetic waves from surfaces of solids significantly depend on the presence of localized surface modes, which include surface electromagnetic waves. This particular type of waves exists at the interface between two different media. An electromagnetic surface wave propagates along the interface and decreases exponentially in the perpendicular direction.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 3. Theory of the Fluctuating Electromagnetic Field
Abstract
There are two approaches for studying the fluctuating electromagnetic field. In the first approach, proposed by Rytov [5–7], it is assumed that the fluctuating electromagnetic field is created by the thermal and quantum fluctuations of current density \(\mathbf {j}^f\) inside the medium.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 4. Spectral Correlation Function for the Electromagnetic Field from Planar Sources
Abstract
The spectral correlation function for the fluctuating electromagnetic field outside a semi-infinite solid with a planar surface can be calculated using the generalized Kirchhoff law for isotropic materials.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 5. The Casimir Forces
Abstract
To obtain a simple picture of the origin of the Casimir force, we begin this section by considering a system of two plane-parallel plates of ideal conductors, following the original Casimir paper [39]. These planes produce a waveguide. The number of electromagnetic modes in the waveguide is discrete and depends on the width of the waveguide. From quantum electrodynamics, it is known that each mode with frequency \(\omega \) has a minimum energy \(\hbar \omega /2\) referred to as vacuum fluctuations or zero point motion.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 6. Radiative Heat Transfer
Abstract
In this section, we consider the basic principles of radiative heat transfer. The general theory of the fluctuating electromagnetic field is applied for the calculation of the radiative heat transfer in the plate–plate and particle–plate configurations using the Green’s function and scattering matrix approaches. The Green’s function approach is used to calculate the radiative heat transfer between anisotropic materials and the scattering matrix approach is used to calculate the radiative heat transfer between plates in relative motion.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 7. Casimir Friction Between Two Plates
Abstract
In this section, two approaches in the theory of Casimir friction in the plate-plate configuration are considered. The first approach is based on the fluctuation electrodynamics proposed by Rytov [5–7]. In this approach the fluctuating electromagnetic field is considered as a classical field that can be calculated from Maxwell’s equation with the fluctuating current density as the source of the field, and with appropriate boundary conditions.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 8. Casimir Friction Between a Small Particle and a Plane Surface
Abstract
In this section, the friction force acting on a small neutral particle moving relative to a flat surface of a solid is considered in the framework of the fluctuation electrodynamic in non-relativistic and relativistic cases. The friction force in the particle–plate configuration is deduced from the friction force in the plate–plate configuration, assuming one of the plates to be sufficiently rarefied. The effect of the multiple scattering of the electromagnetic field between a particle and substrate is also studied. These effects can be important for physisorbed molecules. For physisorbed molecules, high-order processes, which are not included in the theory of Casimir friction, can dominate the damping rate of physisorbed molecules. The results of the theoretical calculations are compared with experimental data. The special case of Casimir friction force acting on a small neutral particle moving relative to the black-body radiation is also analyzed.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 9. Casimir Frictional Drag Force in Low-Dimensional Systems
Abstract
Coulomb drag is a frictional coupling between electric currents flowing in spatially separated conducting layers. It is caused by interlayer electron-electron interactions. The frictional drag between quantum wells makes it possible to probe directly the inter-particle interaction.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 10. Casimir Forces and Near-Field Radiative Heat Transfer in Graphene Structures
Abstract
Casimir has shown that quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field produce an attractive force between macroscopic bodies. It has recently been shown that two non-contacting bodies moving relative to each other experience a friction due to the same quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. However, until recent time there was no experimental evidence for or against this effect, because the predicted friction forces are very small, and precise measurements of quantum forces are incredibly difficult with present technology. The existence of quantum friction is still debated even among theoreticians. However, the situation drastically changed with the discovery of a new material—graphene. We recently proposed that quantum friction can be detected in frictional drag experiments between graphene sheets, and in the transport properties of nonsuspended graphene on an SiO\(_2\) substrate in a high electric field.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 11. Radiation by Uniformly Moving Sources
Abstract
When a charged particle uniformly moves through a medium with the velocity higher than the velocity of light in that medium, the VavilovCherenkov radiation is produced by the medium.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 12. Phononic Heat Transfer at Planar Interfaces
Abstract
Almost all surfaces in nature and technology have roughness on many different length scales [385]. When two macroscopic solids are brought into contact, even if the applied force is very small for example, just the weight of the upper solid block the pressure in the asperity contact regions can be very high, usually close to the yield stress of the (plastically) softer solid.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 13. Heat Transfer: Role of Surface Roughness
Abstract
In this section, we study the heat transfer between elastic solids with randomly rough surfaces. We include both the heat transfer from the area of real contact, and the heat transfer between the surfaces in the non-contact regions. We apply a recently developed contact mechanics theory, which accounts for the hierarchical nature of the contact between solids with roughness on many different length scales. For elastic contact, at the highest (atomic) resolution, the area of real contact typically consists of atomic (nanometer) sized regions, and we discuss the implications of this for the heat transfer. For solids with very smooth surfaces, as is typical in many modern engineering applications, the interfacial separation in the non-contact regions will be very small, and for this case we show the importance of the radiative heat transfer associated with the evanescent electromagnetic waves, which exists outside of all bodies.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 14. Electrostatic Friction
Abstract
We consider the effect of an external bias voltage and the spatial variation of the surface potential on the damping of cantilever vibrations. The electrostatic friction is due to energy losses in the sample created by the electromagnetic field from the oscillating charges induced on the surface of the tip by the bias voltage and spatial variation of the surface potential.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Chapter 15. Phonon and Internal Non-contact Friction
Abstract
Consider a tip which performs harmonic oscillation, \(u=u_0\exp (-\mathrm {i} \omega t)+c.c.,\) above an elastic body with a flat surface.
Aleksandr I. Volokitin, Bo N.J. Persson
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Electromagnetic Fluctuations at the Nanoscale
Authors
Aleksandr I. Volokitin
Bo N.J. Persson
Copyright Year
2017
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Electronic ISBN
978-3-662-53474-8
Print ISBN
978-3-662-53473-1
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53474-8

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