Phys. Rev. A 62, 062105 (2000) [10 pages]Focusing vacuum fluctuationsReceived 29 March 2000; published 15 November 2000 The focusing of the vacuum modes of a quantized field by a parabolic mirror is investigated. We use a geometric optics approximation to calculate the energy density and mean-squared field averages for scalar and electromagnetic fields near the focus. We find that these quantities grow as an inverse power of the distance to the focus. There is an attractive Casimir-Polder force on an atom which will draw it into the focus. Some estimates of the magnitude of the effects of this focusing indicate that it may be observable. © 2000 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.62.062105
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevA.62.062105
PACS:
12.20.Ds, 03.70.+k, 34.20.Cf, 04.62.+v
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