Precision measurement of the Casimir force between metallic surfaces and the demonstration of the lateral Casimir force and temperature correction

The Casimir effect has recently become important because of its central role in modern physics. Despite its exclusively quantum nature, associated with the zero-point energy of a quantized field, the Casimir force between neutral metallic surfaces is a macroscopic phenomenon. Because the Casimir force increases rapidly with the distance between surfaces and strongly depends on the shape of the boundary, it plays a very important role in micro-electromechanical systems. The precision measurement of the Casimir force has also been advanced as a new powerful test for hypothetical long-range interactions, including corrections to the Newtonian gravitational law at small distances predicted by the unified gauge theories, supersymmetry, supergravity and string theory.; This work develops new techniques to measure the Casimir force between a Au coated sphere and plate under different boundary conditions. At the heart of these techniques is the precision force measurement adapted to the Atomic Force Microscope. Calibrations of the necessary parameters have been developed.; Here we report an improved precision measurement of the normal Casimir force. The experimental data are compared with a theory that has no adjustable parameters. Combined random and systematic error of order 2.5% of the Casimir force at the closest separation is achieved.; We made the first demonstration of the lateral Casimir force between two sinusoidally corrugated surfaces. The obtained results are shown to be in good agreement with a complete theory taking into account the imperfectness of the boundary metal. This demonstration opens new opportunities for the use of the Casimir effect for lateral translation in microelectromechanical systems.; We also developed a sensitive differential force measurement technique for measuring the temperature correction. A preliminary experiment investigating the temperature correction to the Casimir force is reported. With further improvement, this may be able to resolve the controversy in the theoretical approaches to the thermal Casimir force.