Near Field Propulsion Forces from Nonreciprocal Media
Name
PhysRevLett.126.170401.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
327.68 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
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Author(s)
Gelbwaser-Klimovsky, David
Graham, Noah
Kardar, Mehran
Krüger, Matthias
Date Issued
2021
Journal
Physical Review Letters
Publisher
American Physical Society (APS)
Citation
Gelbwaser-Klimovsky, David, Graham, Noah, Kardar, Mehran and Krüger, Matthias. 2021. "Near Field Propulsion Forces from Nonreciprocal Media." Physical Review Letters, 126 (17).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Arguments based on symmetry and thermodynamics may suggest the existence of a ratchetlike lateral Casimir force between two plates at different temperatures and with broken inversion symmetry. We find that this is not sufficient, and at least one plate must be made of nonreciprocal material. This setup operates as a heat engine by transforming heat radiation into mechanical force. Although the ratio of the lateral force to heat transfer in the near field regime diverges inversely with the plates separation, d, an Onsager symmetry, which we extend to nonreciprocal plates, limits the engine efficiency to the Carnot value η_{c}. The optimal velocity of operation in the far field is of the order of cη_{c}, where c is the speed of light. In the near field regime, this velocity can be reduced to the order of ω[over ¯]dη_{c}, where ω[over ¯] is a typical material frequency.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.126.170401
