Study of high-order effects in atom-surface interactions*

Atom-surface interactions have attracted much attention in connection with, for example, experiments on quantum reflection and Bose-Einstein condensed or ultracold atoms confined near surfaces or in atomic-photonic devices. So far, most work has been focused on the leading term of the long-range interaction coefficient C3 between an atom and a perfectly conducting surface. In this work, using existing dielectric response functions of realistic materials, the high-order dispersion coefficients C5, C7, C9, and C11 between one of the H, He, or Li atoms and a dielectric macroscopic surface are calculated, including finite nuclear mass corrections, using Gaussian quadrature. Our results may be used to construct accurate atom-surface potential energy curves.