CRITICALFORCE · Applications of Critical Casimir Forces

Nanoscience and nanotechnology are in the process of revolutionising the way we live and do science. In the context of this drive towards the nanoscale, the specific aim of the present project to provide new tools to harness forces and interactions at mesoscopic and nanoscopic length-scales, e.g., the forces arising between several nanodevices, by gaining a better understanding and by exploring possible applications of critical Casimir forces. Critical Casimir forces are interesting from the fundamental point of view as a manifestation of critical phenomena, but also, and perhaps more importantly, from the technological point of view, e.g., as a tunable mechanism to prevent the sticking in MEMS and NEMS (micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems) due to QED (quantum-electrodynamical) Casimir forces. The experimental study of critical Casimir forces acting on microscopic object is a fairly new field of research, which can benefit from the novel techniques we are going to deploy within this proposal.