Abstract
We present systematic measurements of the Casimir force between a gold-coated plate and a sphere coated with a hydrogen-switchable mirror. Hydrogen-switchable mirrors are shiny metals that can become transparent upon hydrogenation. Despite such a dramatic change of the optical properties of the sphere, we did not observe any significant decrease of the Casimir force after filling the experimental apparatus with hydrogen. This counterintuitive result can be explained by the Lifshitz theory that describes the Casimir attraction between metallic and dielectric materials.
| Original language | English |
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| Pages (from-to) | 4019-4023 |
| Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Volume | 101 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2004 |