The Casimir Force between Two Graphene Sheets: 2D Fresnel Reflection Coefficients, Contributions of Different Polarizations, and the Role of Evanescent Waves

Abstract

We consider the Casimir pressure between two graphene sheets and contributions to it determined by evanescent and propagating waves with different polarizations. For this purpose, the derivation of the 2-dimensional (2D) Fresnel reflection coefficients on a graphene sheet is presented in terms of the transverse and longitudinal dielectric permittivities of graphene with due account of the spatial dispersion. The explicit expressions for both dielectric permittivities as the functions of the 2D wave vector, frequency, and temperature are written along the real frequency axis in the regions of propagating and evanescent waves and at the pure imaginary Matsubara frequencies using the polarization tensor of graphene. It is shown that in the application region of the Dirac model nearly the total value of the Casimir pressure between two graphene sheets is determined by the electromagnetic field with transverse magnetic (TM) polarization. By using the Lifshitz formula written along the real frequency axis, the contributions of the TM-polarized propagating and evanescent waves into the total pressure are determined. By confronting these results with the analogous results found for plates made of real metals, the way for bringing the Lifshitz theory using the realistic response functions in agreement with measurements of the Casimir force between metallic test bodies is pointed out.

Keywords

• graphene
• Casimir pressure
• Dirac model
• spatial dispersion
• polarization tensor
• propagating waves