Optical detection of the Casimir force between macroscopic objects.
We report the optical detection of mechanical deformation of a macroscopic object induced by the Casimir force. An adaptive holographic interferometer based on a photorefractive BaTiO3:Co crystal was used to measure periodical nonlinear deformations of a thin pellicle caused by an oscillating Casimir force. A reasonable agreement between the experimental and calculated values of the first and second harmonics of the Casimir force oscillations has been obtained.
Petrov
Victor
V
Institute of Applied Physics, Darmstadt University of Tecnology, Hochschulstrasse 6, Darmstadt 64289, Germany. victor.petrov@physik.tu-darmstadt.de
Petrov
Mikhail
M
Bryksin
Valeriy
V
Petter
Juergen
J
Tschudi
Theo
T