The Spacetime Metric

Profile

Alejandro W. Rodriguez

Professor of electrical and computer engineering, Princeton University

Rodriguez develops theoretical and computational approaches to nanophotonics and electromagnetic fluctuations. His collaborative work examines how material properties and geometry affect Casimir interactions. He coauthored a review of Casimir and van der Waals forces and a study measuring non-monotonic Casimir forces between patterned silicon structures with integrated sensors and actuators.

Affiliations

  • Princeton University, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Channels

Bibliography

A bibliography listing does not establish authorship. Credits appear under attribution.

Published bibliography entries: 2. Showing 1–2 of 2.

  1. Listed work

    Paper · 2017

    Measurement of non-monotonic Casimir forces between silicon nanostructures

    1. L. Tang(Author)
    2. M. Wang(Author)
    3. C. Y. Ng(Author)
    4. M. Nikolic(Author)
    5. C. T. Chan(Author)
    6. A. W. Rodriguez(Author)
    7. H. B. Chan(Author)

    Tang, Wang, Ng, Nikolic, Chan, Rodriguez and Chan tackle a practical barrier: novel geometries that should give repulsive or non-monotonic Casimir forces are hard to align at close range. An on-chip platform with integrated force sensors and actuators removes the alignment problem and measures the force between two silicon surfaces with nanoscale protrusions. The Casimir force depends non-monotonically on displacement. At some displacements it confines the motion and effectively stiffens the nanomechanical spring. This opens the way to using the Casimir force in nanomachines built from unconventional shapes, and the same scheme can measure lateral Casimir forces between other novel structures.

  2. Listed work

    Paper · 2016

    Materials perspective on Casimir and van der Waals interactions

    1. L. M. Woods(Author)
    2. D. A. R. Dalvit(Author)
    3. A. Tkatchenko(Author)
    4. P. Rodriguez-Lopez(Author)
    5. A. W. Rodriguez(Author)
    6. R. Podgornik(Author)

    Woods, Dalvit, Tkatchenko, Rodriguez-Lopez, Rodriguez and Podgornik review van der Waals and Casimir forces, which fluctuations of the electromagnetic field create at every length scale between any finite systems. These forces matter both for the basic science of materials and for designing micro- and nano-structured devices. The review summarises major breakthroughs and stresses that the two interactions share a common origin. It covers ab initio modelling, materials with Dirac-like spectra, controlling the force through nontrivial boundary conditions, and van der Waals forces in organic and biological matter. Materials may hold the answers to several open problems in fluctuation-induced phenomena.