title: Measurement of the Casimir force between dissimilar metals.
abstract: The first precise measurement of the Casimir force between dissimilar metals is reported. The attractive force, between a Cu layer evaporated on a microelectromechanical torsional oscillator and an Au layer deposited on an Al2O3 sphere, was measured dynamically with a noise level of 6 fN/sqrt[Hz]. Measurements were performed for separations in the 0.2-2 micro m range. The results agree to better than 1% in the 0.2-0.5 micro m range with a theoretical model that takes into account the finite conductivity and roughness of the two metals. The observed discrepancies, which are much larger than the experimental precision, can be attributed to a lack of a complete characterization of the optical properties of the specific samples used in the experiment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana 46202, USA.
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Decca
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: López
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fischbach
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Krause