EAGER: Study of Casimir Force Engineering by Modeling and Implementing Novel Three-dimensional Structures

本程序的目的是研究真空涨落密度的变化对Casimir力的影响。我们将开发非常准确的测量方法，以高空间和时间分辨率动态评估卡西米尔力。拟议工作的智力价值在于，它可以导致新的和未探索的表面科学领域，以及卡西米尔力工程的新兴领域。此外，在这一领域的实验和理论工作是立即适用于技术领域，如能源储存和纳米机电系统（NEMS）。最后，在这一努力过程中开发的数值方法将被出版，并有助于推进从NEMS到纳米生物力学的表面效应普遍存在的领域。更广泛的影响是通过在光子学课程和量子场论高级课程中纳入本研究的一些结果。此外，将在这项研究工作中开发的开源模拟工具将通过文献公开提供，并与该领域的其他研究人员共享。最后，将鼓励来自代表性不足和少数群体的本科生和研究生参加这项研究。PI计划在这方面利用西北大学的AGEP（研究生教育和教授联盟）计划。

The objective of this program is to study the change of Casimir force, due to variation of density of vacuum fluctuation. We will develop very accurate measurement methods to dynamically evaluate the Casimir force with a high spatial and temporal resolution. The intellectual merits of the proposed work are that it can lead to new and unexplored areas of surface science, and the emerging field of Casimir force engineering. Also, experimental and theoretical work in this area is immediately applicable to technological areas such as energy storage and nano-electro-mechanical systems (NEMS). Finally, numerical methods developed during this effort would be published and help advance fields where surface effects are prevalent from NEMS to NanoBioMechanics. The broader impacts are through incorporation of some of the results of this research in the photonics courses and an advanced course on quantum field theory. Also, an open-source simulation tools that will be developed in this research effort will become publicly available through the literature and shared with other researchers in this field. Finally, undergraduate and graduate students from under-represented and minority groups will be encouraged to take part in this research. The PI plans to take advantage of AGEP (Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professorate) program at Northwestern University in this regard.