Disentangling X-ray dichroism and birefringence via high-purity polarimetry

Abstract

High-brilliance synchrotron radiation sources have opened new avenues for X-ray polarization analysis that go far beyond conventional polarimetry in the optical domain. With linear X-ray polarizers in a crossed setting polarization extinction ratios down to 10${}^{-10}$ can be achieved. This renders the method sensitive to probe tiniest optical anisotropies that would occur, for example, in strong-field QED due to vacuum birefringence and dichroism. Here we show that high-purity polarimetry can be employed to reveal electronic anisotropies in condensed matter systems with utmost sensitivity and spectral resolution. Taking CuO and La${}_2$CuO${}_4$ as benchmark systems, we present a full characterization of the polarization changes across the Cu K-absorption edge and their separation into dichroic and birefringent contributions. At diffraction-limited synchrotron radiation sources and X-ray lasers, where polarization extinction ratios of 10${}^{-12}$ can be achieved, our method has the potential to assess birefringence and dichroism of the quantum vacuum in extreme electromagnetic fields.

10 pages, 4 figures, 13 pages supplemental material (4 figures)

References in corpus (4)

• Polarized Light Propagating in a Magnetic Field as a Probe of Millicharged Fermions
• Tunable sub-luminal propagation of narrowband x-ray pulses
• Enhancing quantum vacuum signatures with tailored laser beams
• Linear dichroism and the nature of charge order in underdoped cuprates

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• Vacuum Birefringence in a Supercritical Magnetic Field and a Subcritical Electric Field
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• Anapole, chiral and orbital states in Mn3Si2Te6
• A Platform for All-optical Thomson/ Compton Scattering with Versatile Parameters
• Simulating vacuum birefringence with a diffractive beam propagation code
• X-ray vacuum diffraction at finite spatio-temporal offset