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Exploring the van der Waals Atom-Surface attraction in the nanometric range

Michèle Fichet·Gabriel Dutier·Alexander Yarovitski·Petko Todorov·Ismahène Hamdi·Isabelle Maurin·Solomon Saltiel·David Sarkisyan·Marie-Pascale Gorza·Daniel Bloch·Martial Ducloy
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Abstract

The van der Waals atom-surface attraction, scaling as C3 z-3 for z the atom-surface distance, is expected to be valid in the distance range 1-1000 nm, covering 8-10 orders of magnitudes in the interaction energy. A Cs vapour nanocell allows us to analyze the spectroscopic modifications induced by the atom-surface attraction on the 6P3/2->6D5/2 transition. The measured C3 value is found to be independent of the thickness in the explored range 40-130 nm, and is in agreement with an elementary theoretical prediction. We also discuss the specific interest of exploring short distances and large interaction energy.

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Michèle Fichet, Gabriel Dutier, Alexander Yarovitski, Petko Todorov, Ismahène Hamdi, Isabelle Maurin, Solomon Saltiel, David Sarkisyan, Marie-Pascale Gorza, Daniel Bloch, Martial Ducloy. 2006-05-16. Exploring the van der Waals Atom-Surface attraction in the nanometric range. https://doi.org/10.1209/0295-5075/77/54001

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