Tunable Casimir forces by means of the external magnetic field

Abstract

We have theoretically investigated the tuning of Casimir forces by means of an external magnetic field. We have found that the Casimir force between two homogeneous slabs can be tuned by the external field in two ways. One is to add cap layers to the two dielectric slabs. The other is to insert a new dielectric layer into the cavity made of the two slabs. Since the dielectric constants of the materials used as the cap layers or the inserted layers depend on the external magnetic field, the Casimir force can be modified significantly by the external magnetic field. Our results show that it is possible to control the Casimir interaction in the fabrication of materials by an external field.