k
ω
2. 2 2.0 1. 8 1. 6
1. 2
1.0
0.8
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zero-point-charge fluctuations in the
two plates.
We have predicted a giant increase in
the vacuum friction due to the existence
of this photonic mode. In essence, vacu-
um behaves like a viscous jelly at the sin-
gular resonance, causing
a huge frictional force be-
tween the two plates.
The gap sizes need-
ed for the phenomenon
are 10 nm, which is not
difficult to achieve for
parallel plates. The evanescent surface waves
are readily available
in low-frequency plas-monic media such as
terahertz degenerately doped semiconductors and graphene.
2, 3
However, the formida-
ble challenge is the ve-
locity of motion, which
needs to be on the or-
der of the Fermi veloc-
ity of electrons in the
metal, or about one hundredth of the
speed of light.
As a result, we are thinking of innovative approaches using sound waves and
water waves to observe this resonance,
which is a kinematic phenomenon related
to waves in general. This resonance also
offers intriguing possibilities for cooling
and stopping moving media by sudden
emission of large amounts of electromagnetic energy.
REFERENCES
1. Y. Guo and Z. Jacob, Opt. Express 22, 21
(2014); doi: 10.1364/OE. 22.026193
2. A.J. Hoffman et al., Nat. Mater. 6, 946 (2007).
3. A.I. Volokitin and B.N. J. Persson, Phys. Rev.
Lett. 106, 094502 (2011).
Zubin Jacob is an associate professor of
electrical and computer engineering at the
University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada;
e-mail: zjacob@ualberta.ca; www.ece.ualber-
ta.ca/~zjacob.
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FIGURE 2. Energy-momentum relationship for photonic modes
in the moving plate system. The plates consist of highly doped
semiconductors moving at very high velocities (ν). The frequency
is normalized by the surface plasmon resonance frequency of
the plate, and the momentum is normalized by the wavevector
(ω/ν). The false color plots show the central red spot, which is the
singular Fabry–Perot resonance possible only in moving plates.
