Abstract
In the non-retarded regime, the van der Waals interaction potential of an atomic system with a dielectric surface is inversely proportional to the cubic distance to the surface. Its coupling strength depends on a dielectric image coefficient which is given by (e-l)/(e+l) for an ideal dielectric medium (s: permittivity). For a dispersive dielectric, the image coefficient becomes complex and shows off resonances linked to surface polariton modes, thus possibly inducing a resonant coupling between an excited atom and surface polaritons. It has been demonstrated that this resonant coupling may be responsible for a reversal of the van der Waals (vW) forces, turning them into atom-surface repulsion [1], At non-zero temperature, the surface modes are thermally excited and one may expect the reverse process to appear, namely a coupling between a quantum of surface excitation and atom dipole absorption.
© 2007 IEEE
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