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

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...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optica 2021-01, Vol.8 (1), p.56-61
Main Authors: Schmitt, Annika T., Joly, Yves, Schulze, Kai S., Marx-Glowna, Berit, Uschmann, Ingo, Grabiger, Benjamin, Bernhardt, Hendrik, Loetzsch, Robert, Juhin, Amélie, Debray, Jérôme, Wille, Hans-Christian, Yavaş, Hasan, Paulus, Gerhard G., Röhlsberger, Ralf
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Instrumentation and Detectors
NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
Physics
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Summary: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 the tiniest optical anisotropies that would occur, for example, in strong-field quantum electrodynamics 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 L a 2 C u O 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.
ISSN:2334-2536
2334-2536
DOI:10.1364/OPTICA.410357