Charge-induced fluctuation forces in graphitic nanostructures

Abstract

Charge fluctuations in nanocircuits with capacitor components are shown to give rise to a novel type of long-ranged interaction, which coexist with the regular Casimir-van derWaals force. The developed theory distinguishes between thermal and quantum mechanical effects, and it is applied to capacitors involving graphene nanostructures. The charge fluctuations mechanism is captured via the capacitance of the system with geometrical and quantum mechanical components. The dependence on the distance separation, temperature, size, and response properties of the system shows that this type of force can have a comparable and even dominant effect to the Casimir interaction. Our results strongly indicate that fluctuation-induced interactions due to various thermodynamic quantities can have important thermal and quantum mechanical contributions at the microscale and the nanoscale.