Related papers: Refraction of light by light in vacuum
Ultrafast non-thermal manipulation of magnetization by light relies on either indirect coupling of the electric field component of the light with spins via spin-orbit interaction or direct coupling between the magnetic field component and…
Reaching light intensities above $10^{25}$ W/cm$^{2}$ and up to the Schwinger limit ($10^{29}$ W/cm$^{2}$) would enable testing decades-old fundamental predictions of Quantum Electrodynamics. A promising yet challenging approach to achieve…
X-ray refraction and absorption by neon atoms under the influence of an 800 nm laser with an intensity of 10^13 W/cm^2 is investigated. For this purpose, we use an ab initio theory suitable for optical strong-field problems. Its results are…
We present a five level atomic system in which the index of refraction of a probe laser can be enhanced or reduced below unity with vanishing absorption in the region between pairs of absorption and gain lines formed by dressing of the…
Ultrafast electron diffraction (UED) instruments typically operate at kHz or lower repetition rates and rely on indirect detection of electrons. However, these experiments encounter limitations because they are required to use electron…
Quantum electrodynamics predicts the vacuum to behave as a non-linear medium, including effects such as birefringence. However, for experimentally available field strengths, this vacuum polarizability is extremely small and thus very hard…
Relativistic flying mirrors in plasmas are realized as thin dense electron (or electron-ion) layers accelerated by high-intensity electromagnetic waves to velocities close to the speed of light in vacuum. The reflection of an…
The emission from an electron in the field of a relativistically strong laser pulse is analyzed. At pulse intensities of J > 2 10^22 W/cm2 the emission from counter-propagating electrons is modified by the effects of Quantum ElectroDynamics…
Modern x-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) produce x-ray pulses of exceptional transverse coherence. This is due largely to the process of optical guiding by which the radiation is both refractively guided by the bunched electron beam and…
We present an experimental measurement of the refractive index of high density Rb vapor in a gaseous atomic nanolayer. We use heterodyne interferometry to measure the relative phase shift between two copropagating laser beams as a function…
We propose the experiments on the collision of laser light and high intensity electromagnetic pulses generated by relativistic flying mirrors, with electron bunches produced by a conventional accelerator and with laser wake field…
We consider the possibility of an experimental proof of vacuum e+e- pair creation in the focus of two counter-propagating optical laser beams with an intensity of the order of 10^20 - 10^22 W/cm^2. Our approach is based on the collisionless…
The advent of Petawatt-class laser systems allows generating electro-magnetic fields of unprecedented strength in a controlled environment, driving increasingly more efforts to probe yet unobserved processes through their interaction with…
Today's high-intensity laser facilities produce short pulses can, in tight focus, reach peak intensities of $10^{22}\,\mathrm{Wcm}^{-2}$ and, in long focus, wakefield-accelerate electrons to GeV energies. The radiation-reaction--dominated…
We present ultrafast pump-probe reflectivity and Doppler spectrometry of a silicon target at relativistic laser intensity. We observe an unexpected rise in reflectivity to a peak approximately $\sim$9 ps after the main pulse interaction…
The aim of the DeLLight (Deflection of Light by Light) experiment is to observe for the first time the optical nonlinearity in vacuum, as predicted by Quantum Electrodynamics, by measuring the refraction of a low-intensity focused laser…
The influence of the strong laser-driven vacuum on a propagating electromagnetic probe wave has been studied in detail. We investigate two scenarios comprising a focused probe laser beam passing through a region of vacuum polarised by an…
Fundamental to many applications of laser pulses in science and technology is an extended interaction length with matter that significantly exceeds the distance over which the pulse would normally diffract and transversely spread. At low…
We discuss the experimental techniques used to date for measuring the changes in polarization state of a laser produced by a strong transverse magnetic field acting in a vacuum. We point out the likely artifacts that can arise in such…
A mechanical beam chopper consists of a rotating disc of regularly spaced wide slits which allow light to pass through them. A continuous light beam, after passing through the rotating disc, is switched-on and switched-off periodically, and…