Performance of a Sagnac interferometer to observe vacuum optical nonlinearity
Abstract
In Quantum Electrodynamics, vacuum becomes a nonlinear optical medium: its optical index should be modified in the presence of intense external electromagnetic fields. The DeLLight project (Deflection of Light by Light) aims to observe this effect using intense focused femtosecond laser pulses delivered by LASERIX. The principle is to measure with a Sagnac interferometer the deflection of a low-intensity focused pulse (probe) crossing the vacuum index gradient induced by a high-intensity pulse (pump). A Sagnac interferometer working with femtosecond laser pulses has been developed for the DeLLight project. Compared to previous prototypes, the interferometer now includes the focusing of the probe beam in the interaction area. In this article, we measure and characterize the critical experimental parameters limiting the sensitivity of the interferometer, namely the extinction factor, the spatial resolution, and the waist at focus of the probe pulse. We discuss future improvements.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2401.13720,
title = {Performance of a Sagnac interferometer to observe vacuum optical nonlinearity},
author = {Aurélie Max Mailliet and Adrien E. Kraych and François Couchot and Xavier Sarazin and Elsa Baynard and Julien Demailly and Moana Pittman and Arache Djannati-Ataï and Sophie Kazamias and Scott Robertson and Marcel Urban},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.13720},
year = {2024}
}
Comments
14 pages, 12 figures, Submitted to Phys. Rev. A. Version v3 corresponds to the published version in Phys Rev A