Casimir and electrostatic forces from Bi2Se3 thin films of varying thickness

We explore here the decisive role of film thickness on Casimir and electrostatic forces from topological insulating ${\mathrm{Bi}}₂{\mathrm{Se}}₃$ films. The forces were measured for the Au-${\mathrm{Bi}}₂{\mathrm{Se}}₃$ system under ambient conditions to simulate realistic applications. It is shown that the electrostatic forces associated with a nonzero contact potential of ${V}_{\mathrm{o}}\ensuremath{\sim}200\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{mV}$ played a dominant role, and could not be compensated for thinner films ($\ensuremath{\le}20\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{nm}$ thick). However, for thicker films the measured force, after voltage compensation, started to approach the genuine Casimir force in very good agreement with Lifshitz theory. Our results point out that any gradual deviation from theory for thinner films underlies the presence of strong electrostatic effects.