title: Casimir probe based upon metallized high Q SiN nanomembrane resonator.
abstract: We present the instrumentation and measurement scheme of a new Casimir force probe that bridges Casimir force measurements at microscale and macroscale. A metallized high Q silicon nitride nanomembrane resonator is employed as a sensitive force probe. The high tensile stress present in the nanomembrane not only enhances the quality factor but also maintains high flatness over large area serving as the bottom electrode in a sphere-plane configuration. A fiber interferometer is used to readout the oscillation of the nanomembrane and a phase-locked loop scheme is applied to track the change of the resonance frequency. Because of the high quality factor of the nanomembrane and the high stability of the setup, a frequency resolution down to 2 × 10(-9) and a corresponding force gradient resolution of 3 μN/m is achieved. Besides sensitive measurement of Casimir force, our measurement technique simultaneously offers Kelvin probe measurement capability that allows in situ imaging of the surface potentials.
authors: Department of Electrical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
authors: Daniel
authors: D
authors: Garcia-Sanchez
authors: King Yan
authors: KY
authors: Fong
authors: Harish
authors: H
authors: Bhaskaran
authors: Steve
authors: S
authors: Lamoreaux
authors: Hong X
authors: HX
authors: Tang