Constraining New Forces in the Casimir Regime Using the Isoelectronic Technique

Abstract

We report the first isoelectronic differential force measurements between a Au-coated probe and two Au-coated films, made out of Au and Ge. These measurements, performed at submicron separations using soft microelectromechanical torsional oscillators, eliminate the need for a detailed understanding of the probe-film Casimir interaction. The observed differential signal is directly converted into limits on the parameters $\alpha$ and $\lambda$ which characterize Yukawa-like deviations from Newtonian gravity. We find $\alpha \lsim 10^{12}$ for $\lambda \sim 200$ nm, an improvement of $\sim$ 10 over previous limits.