  By using silicon oxide based aerogels we show numerically that the Casimir
force can be reduced several orders of magnitude, making its effect negligible
in nanodevices. This decrease in the Casimir force is also present even when
the aerogels are deposited on metallic substrates. To calculate the Casimir
force we model the dielectric function of silicon oxide aerogels using an
effective medium dielectric function such as the Clausius-Mossotti
approximation. The results show that both the porosity of the aerogel and its
thickness can be use as control parameters to reduce the magnitude of the
Casimir force.
