Exploring the van der Waals Atom-Surface attraction in the nanometric   range
  The van der Waals atom-surface attraction, scaling as C3 z-3 for z the atom-surface distance, is expected to be valid in the distance range 1-1000 nm, covering 8-10 orders of magnitudes in the interaction energy. A Cs vapour nanocell allows us to analyze the spectroscopic modifications induced by the atom-surface attraction on the 6P3/2->6D5/2 transition. The measured C3 value is found to be independent of the thickness in the explored range 40-130 nm, and is in agreement with an elementary theoretical prediction. We also discuss the specific interest of exploring short distances and large interaction energy. 
Mich\`ele Fichet (LPL), Gabriel Dutier (LPL), Alexander Yarovitski   (LPL), Petko Todorov (LPL), Ismah\`ene Hamdi (LPL), Isa...