Excited state contribution to the Casimir-Polder force at finite temperature

2006/04/05 by Mendes, T. N. C., Farina, C.
#FOS: Physical sciences #Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.quant-ph/0604032

Abstract

Using the master equation we calculate the contribution of the excited state of a two-level atom to its interacting potential with a perfectly conducting wall at finite temperature. For low temperature, ℏ ω₀/k_B T = k₀ λ_T≫ 1, where ω₀ = k₀ c is the transition frequency of the atom and λ_T is the thermal wavelength, we show that this contribution is very small (∝ e^-k₀λ_T). In the opposite limit (k₀λ_T ≪ 1), however, we show that the expression for the interacting potential, for all relevant distance regimes, becomes exactly the same as that for very short distances (k₀ z ≪ 1) and with the field in the vacuum state.

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