Casimir forces and near-field radiative heat transfer in graphene structures

Abstract

Casimir has shown that quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field produce an attractive force between macroscopic bodies. It has recently been shown that two non-contacting bodies moving relative to each other experience a friction due to the same quantum fluctuations of the electromagnetic field. However, until recent time there was no experimental evidence for or against this effect, because the predicted friction forces are very small, and precise measurements of quantum forces are incredibly difficult with present technology. The existence of quantum friction is still debated even among theoreticians. However, the situation drastically changed with the discovery of a new material—graphene. We recently proposed that quantum friction can be detected in frictional drag experiments between graphene sheets, and in the transport properties of nonsuspended graphene on an SiO $$:2$$ substrate in a high electric field.