Demonstration of Angle-Dependent Casimir Force between Corrugations

The normal Casimir force between a sinusoidally corrugated gold coated plate and a sphere was measured at various angles between the corrugations using an atomic force microscope. A strong dependence on the orientation angle of the corrugation is found. The measured forces were found to deviate from the proximity force approximation and are in agreement with the theory based on the gradient expansion including correlation effects of geometry and material properties. We analyze the role of temperature. The obtained results open new opportunities for control of the Casimir effect in micromechanical systems.