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

Michèle Fichet (1) , Gabriel Dutier (1) , Alexander Yarovitski (1, 2) , Petko Todorov (1) , Ismahène Hamdi (1) , Isabelle Maurin (1) , Solomon Saltiel (1) , David Sarkisyan (3) , Marie-Pascale Gorza (1) , Daniel Bloch (1) , Martial Ducloy (1)

1 LPL - Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers
2 Branch of Quantum Radio physics, Frequency Standard Laboratory
3 IPR - Institute for Physical Research

The van der Waals atom-surface attraction, scaling as C3 z-3 for z the atom-surface distance, is expected to be valid for ~ 1-1000 nm, covering 8-10 orders of magnitudes in the interaction energy. Thanks to a Cs vapor nanocell, we analyze the spectroscopic modifications induced by the atom-surface attraction on the 6P3/2->6D5/2 transition. The C3 value, extracted independently for various thicknesses ranging from 40 nm to 130 nm, is found to be independent of the thickness. It agrees, but only within a factor of 2, with an elementary theoretical prediction, whose validity is discussed.

Mots clés: van der Waals; Atome-surface; nanocell; naometric thickness

Domaines: Physique Atomique [physics.atom-ph]

Michèle Fichet, Gabriel Dutier, Alexander Yarovitski, Petko Todorov, Ismahène Hamdi, et al.. Exploring the van der Waals Atom-Surface attraction in the nanometric range. 2006. ⟨hal-00069106v1⟩