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.

arXiv comment10 pages, 4 figures, 13 pages supplemental material (4 figures)

References in corpus (12)

• On the Observation of Vacuum Birefringence
• Polarized Light Propagating in a Magnetic Field as a Probe of Millicharged Fermions
• Birefringence and Dichroism of the QED Vacuum
• Vacuum-assisted generation and control of atomic coherences at x-ray energies
• Vacuum birefringence in strong inhomogeneous electromagnetic fields
• Tunable sub-luminal propagation of narrowband x-ray pulses
• Probing vacuum birefringence using x-ray free electron and optical high-intensity lasers
• Vacuum birefringence in the head-on collision of XFEL and optical high-intensity laser pulses
• Proposed Chiral Texture of the Magnetic Moments of Unit-Cell Loop Currents in the Pseudogap Phase of Cuprate Superconductors
• Enhancing quantum vacuum signatures with tailored laser beams
• X-ray natural dichroism and chiral order in underdoped cuprates
• Linear dichroism and the nature of charge order in underdoped cuprates

Cited by in corpus (10)

• Expanding Nuclear Physics Horizons with the Gamma Factory
• Letter of Intent: Towards a Vacuum Birefringence Experiment at the Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields
• Vacuum birefringence at the Gamma Factory
• Fundamental constants from photon-photon scattering in three-beam collisions
• Vacuum Birefringence in a Supercritical Magnetic Field and a Subcritical Electric Field
• Axionlike-particle generation by laser-plasma interaction
• 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