Influence of retardation and dispersive surfaces on the regimes of the lateral Casimir-Polder force (2402.07026v1)

Abstract: We investigate, by means of the scattering approach, the Casimir-Polder interaction between a neutral anisotropic polarizable particle and a corrugated surface made of a realistic material. By focusing on the lateral force (arising from the presence of corrugation on the surface), we investigate the conditions for the particle to be attracted to the nearest corrugation peak, valley, or to an intermediate point between a peak and a valley, with such behaviors called peak, valley and intermediate regimes, respectively. Such regimes of the lateral force were recently predicted in the literature, but in the context of the van der Waals interaction and considering the surface made of some ideal material (a perfectly conducting or a nondispersive dielectric). Here, we investigate how the occurrence of the mentioned regimes is affected by the consideration of realistic dielectric properties for the surface and also of the retardation in the interaction. In this context, we show that the consideration of a dispersive surface, when compared to the mentioned idealized materials, can amplify the occurrence of the valley and intermediate regimes. Moreover, regarding the consideration of retardation, we show that it has a small influence on the occurrence of the valley regime, but, for the intermediate ones, can either amplify or inhibit them. Such investigation provides a preciser description of the interaction between an anisotropic particle and a corrugated surface, giving a better understanding of the nontrivial aspects of the lateral Casimir-Polder force.