Lateral Casimir force beyond the proximity force approximation: A nontrivial interplay between geometry and quantum vacuum

10 pages, 7 figures.International audienceThe lateral Casimir force between two corrugated metallic plates makes possible a study of the nontrivial interplay of geometry and Casimir effect appearing beyond the regime of validity of the Proximity Force Approximation (PFA). Quantitative evaluations can be obtained by using scattering theory in a perturbative expansion valid when the corrugation amplitudes are smaller than the three other length scales: the mean separation distance $L$ of the plates, the corrugation period $\lambda_\C$ and the plasma wavelength $\lambda_\P$. Within this perturbative expansion, evaluations are obtained for arbitrary relative values of $L$, $\lambda_\C$ and $\lambda_\P$ while limiting cases, some of them already known, are recovered when these values obey some specific orderings. The consequence of these results for comparison with existing experiments is discussed in the end of the paper