Thermal Lifshitz Force between an Atom and a Conductor with a Small Density of Carriers

A new theory describing the interaction between atoms and a conductor with small densities of current carriers is presented. The theory takes into account the penetration of the static component of the thermally fluctuating field in the conductor and generalizes the Lifshitz theory in the presence of a spatial dispersion. The equation obtained for the force describes the continuous crossover between the Lifshitz results for dielectrics and metals.