Boosting Quantum Vacuum Signatures by Coherent Harmonic Focusing

Felix Karbstein (Helmholtz-Institut Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany; Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany) ; Alexander Blinne (Helmholtz-Institut Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany) ; Holger Gies (Helmholtz-Institut Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany; Theoretisch-Physikalisches Institut, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany) ; Matt Zepf (Helmholtz-Institut Jena, Fröbelstieg 3, 07743 Jena, Germany; Institut für Optik und Quantenelektronik, Abbe Center of Photonics, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena, Germany)

We show that coherent harmonic focusing provides an efficient mechanism to boost all-optical signatures of quantum vacuum nonlinearity in the collision of high-intensity laser fields, thereby offering a promising route to their first experimental detection. Assuming two laser pulses of given parameters at our disposal, we demonstrate a substantial increase of the number of signal photons measurable in experiments where one of the pulses undergoes coherent harmonic focusing before it collides with the fundamental-frequency pulse. Imposing a quantitative criterion to discern the signal photons from the background of the driving laser photons and accounting for the finite purity of polarization filtering, we find that signal photons arising from inelastic scattering processes constitute a promising signature. By contrast, quasielastic contributions which are conventionally assumed to form the most prospective signal remain background dominated. Our findings may result in a paradigm shift concerning which photonic signatures of quantum vacuum nonlinearity are accessible in experiment.

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Published on:
30 August 2019
Publisher:
APS
Published in:
Physical Review Letters , Volume 123 (2019)
Issue 9
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.091802
arXiv:
1905.00858
Copyrights:
Published by the American Physical Society
Licence:
CC-BY-4.0

Fulltext files: