TY - JOUR T1 - Casimir force between sharp-shaped conductors JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Y1 - 2011 A1 - Mohammad F. Maghrebi A1 - Sahand Jamal Rahi A1 - Thorsten Emig A1 - Noah Graham A1 - Robert L. Jaffe A1 - Mehran Kardar AB - Casimir forces between conductors at the sub-micron scale cannot be ignored in the design and operation of micro-electromechanical (MEM) devices. However, these forces depend non-trivially on geometry, and existing formulae and approximations cannot deal with realistic micro-machinery components with sharp edges and tips. Here, we employ a novel approach to electromagnetic scattering, appropriate to perfect conductors with sharp edges and tips, specifically to wedges and cones. The interaction of these objects with a metal plate (and among themselves) is then computed systematically by a multiple-scattering series. For the wedge, we obtain analytical expressions for the interaction with a plate, as functions of opening angle and tilt, which should provide a particularly useful tool for the design of MEMs. Our result for the Casimir interactions between conducting cones and plates applies directly to the force on the tip of a scanning tunneling probe; the unexpectedly large temperature dependence of the force in these configurations should attract immediate experimental interest. VL - 108 U4 - 6867 - 6871 UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.3223v1 CP - 17 J1 - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U5 - 10.1073/pnas.1018079108 ER -