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Related Concept Videos

Chirality02:25

Chirality

Chirality is a term that describes the lack of mirror symmetry in an object. In other words, chiral objects cannot be superposed on their mirror images. For example, our feet are chiral, as the mirror image of the left foot, the right foot, cannot be superposed on the left foot.
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chirality in Nature02:30

Chirality in Nature

Chirality is the most intriguing yet essential facet of nature, governing life’s biochemical processes and precision. It can be observed from a snail shell pattern in a macroscopic world to an amino acid, the minutest building block of life. Most of the snails around the world have right-coiled shells because of the intrinsic chirality in their genes. All the amino acids present in the human body exist in an enantiomerically pure state, except for glycine - the sole achiral amino acid. The...
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers02:25

Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers

Molecules that possess multiple chiral centers can afford a large number of stereoisomers. For instance, while some molecules like 2-butanol have one chiral center, defined as a tetrahedral carbon atom with four different substituents attached, several molecules like butane-2,3-diol have multiple chiral centers. A simple formula to predict the number of stereoisomers possible for a molecule with n chiral centers is 2n. However, there can be a lower number where some of the stereoisomers are...
Prochirality02:05

Prochirality

The concept of prochirality leads to the nomenclature of the individual faces of a molecule and plays a crucial role in the enantioselective reaction. It is a concept where two or more achiral molecules react to produce chiral products. A typical process is the reaction of an achiral ketone to generate a chiral alcohol. Here, the achiral reactant reacts with an achiral reducing agent, sodium borohydride, to generate an equimolar mixture of the chiral enantiomers of the product. For example, an...
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity02:24

Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

It is essential to understand the difference between chiral and achiral interactions and the implications thereof in optical activity and their applications. Just as our feet, which are chiral, interact uniquely with chiral objects, such as a pair of shoes, but identically with achiral socks, enantiomers of a molecule exhibit different properties only when they interact with other chiral media. An example of a significant implication from this facet is the phenomenon known as optical activity,...
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur02:30

Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur

Chirality is most prevalent in carbon-based tetrahedral compounds, but this important facet of molecular symmetry extends to sp3-hybridized nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur centers, including trivalent molecules with lone pairs. Here, the lone pair behaves as a functional group in addition to the other three substituents to form an analogous tetrahedral center that can be chiral.
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...

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Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
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Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals

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Repulsive Casimir force in chiral metamaterials.

R Zhao1, J Zhou, Th Koschny

  • 1Ames Laboratory and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA.

Physical Review Letters
|October 2, 2009
PubMed
Summary

Repulsive Casimir forces and stable nanolevitations are achievable using chiral metamaterials. This theoretical study extends Lifshitz theory to demonstrate the possibility of these effects under realistic conditions.

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Area of Science:

  • Condensed matter physics
  • Nanotechnology
  • Materials science

Background:

  • Casimir forces are quantum mechanical forces arising from vacuum fluctuations.
  • Metamaterials offer unique electromagnetic properties not found in natural materials.
  • Chirality in metamaterials introduces asymmetry in their response to electromagnetic fields.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To theoretically investigate the possibility of generating repulsive Casimir forces.
  • To explore the potential for stable nanolevitations using chiral metamaterials.
  • To extend the Lifshitz theory for accurate calculations involving chiral metamaterials.

Main Methods:

  • Theoretical modeling based on the Lifshitz theory.
  • Extension of Lifshitz theory to incorporate chiral metamaterial properties.
  • Analysis of frequency dependencies and limiting values of material parameters.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated the theoretical possibility of repulsive Casimir forces.
  • Identified conditions for stable nanolevitations using chiral metamaterials.
  • Found that strong chirality can lead to repulsive forces and energy minima.

Conclusions:

  • Chiral metamaterials offer a novel route to control Casimir forces.
  • Stable nanolevitations are theoretically feasible with appropriately designed chiral metamaterials.
  • The extended Lifshitz theory provides a framework for understanding these phenomena.