MIR: an experiment for the measurement of the dynamical Casimir effect

In this paper we report the status of the experiment MIR (Motion Induced Radiation), aimed at the experimental verification of the dynamical Casimir effect. The stringent theoretical requirements to observe the effect are satisfied in a scheme in which the conductivity of a semiconductor inside a superconducting microwave resonant cavity is varied in time. Free carriers in the semiconductor are periodically excited and recombine at 5 GHz. In this process vacuum and thermal photons are parametrically amplified in a time interval of 200-500 ns.