Refraction of light by light in vacuum

Abstract

In very intense electromagnetic fields, the vacuum refractive index is expected to be modified due to nonlinear quantum electrodynamics (QED) properties. Several experimental tests using high intensity lasers have been proposed to observe electromagnetic nonlinearities in vacuum, such as the diffraction or the reflection of intense laser pulses. We propose a new approach which consists in observing the refraction, i.e. the rotation of the waveplanes of a probe laser pulse crossing a transverse vacuum index gradient. The latter is produced by the interaction of two very intense and ultra short laser pulses, used as pump pulses. At the maximum of the index gradient, the refraction angle of the probe pulse is estimated to be $0.2\times (\frac{w_0}{10\mu \mathrm{m}}{)}^{-3}\times \frac{I}{1\mathrm{J}}$~picoradians, where $I$ is the total energy of the two pump pulses and $w_0$ is the minimum waist (fwhm) at the interaction area. Assuming the most intense laser pulses attainable by the LASERIX facility ($I=25$~J, 30~fs fwhm duration, 800~nm central wavelength) and assuming a minimum waist of $w=10\mu \mathrm{m}$ (fwhm) (corresponding to an intensity of the order of $10^{21}$~W/cm${}^2$), the expected maximum refraction angle is about 5~picoradians. An experimental setup, using a Sagnac interferometer, is proposed to perform this measurement.

Accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. Journal D

References in corpus (6)

• Ultrasensitive Beam Deflection Measurement via Interferometric Weak Value Amplification
• Photon-photon scattering in collisions of laser pulses
• First results from the new PVLAS apparatus: a new limit on vacuum magnetic birefringence
• Quantum Reflection as a New Signature of Quantum Vacuum Nonlinearity
• Picoradian deflection measurement with an interferometric quasi-autocollimator using weak value amplification
• Quantum reflection of photons off spatio-temporal electromagnetic field inhomogeneities

Cited by in corpus (15)

• An Addendum to the Heisenberg-Euler effective action beyond one loop
• Extending the constraint for axion-like particles as resonances at the LHC and laser beam experiments
• The DeLLight experiment to observe an optically-induced change of the vacuum index
• Optical Kerr effect in vacuum
• Considerations on the modified Maxwell electrodynamics in the presence of an electric and magnetic background
• On the Heisenberg limit for detecting vacuum birefringence
• Photon-photon physics at the LHC and laser beam experiments, present and future
• The effect of polarization entanglement in photon-photon scattering
• The PVLAS experiment: a 25 year effort to measure vacuum magnetic birefringence
• Interferometric measurement of the deflection of light by light in air
• Performance of a Sagnac interferometer to observe vacuum optical nonlinearity
• Long time behavior of nonlinear electromagnetic wave in vacuum beyond linear approximation
• A Dirac-material-inspired non-linear electrodynamic model
• Interferometric Differential High-Frequency Lock-In Probe for Laser-Induced Vacuum Birefringence
• Remarks on inverse electrodynamics