CASIMIR FORCE BETWEEN A FLAT-PLATE AND A SPHERICAL LENS - APPLICATIONTO THE RESULTS OF A NEW EXPERIMENT

The Casimir force is calculated in a configuration consisting of a len s placed above a flat plate of arbitrary size used in recent experimen t. The corrections due to the finite size of the plate are shown to be negligible. On the other hand, corrections due to the small distortio ns of interacting surfaces, their deviation from the perfect geometric al shape and due to the finite metal conductivity were found to be sev eral times larger than the relative experimental error. It is shown th at the corrections due to distortions and finite conductivity have opp osite signs and may compensate each other.