Probing the quantum vacuum

Recently, a new type of experiments has allowed direct access to vacuum fluctuations using the interaction of two coherent laser pulses with the fluctuating field in a nonlinear crystal.

Experimental signal:

Using this result, our experimental collaborators from the experimental group of Prof. Faist (ETH Zürich), were able to demonstrate correlations in the vacuum outside the light-cone.

Our theory also predicts how the medium-assisted or polaritonic quantum vacuum can be probed, e.g. close to a material resonance, inside a cavity, or close to a plate with a surface plasmon polariton.

^{C. Riek et al., Science 350, 420 (2015)}

^{F.F. Settembrini, F.L., A. Herter, S.Y.B., J. Faist, Nat. Comm. 13, 3383 (2022)}

^{F.L. R. Bennett, S.Y.B., New J. Phys. 24, 013006 (2022)}

^{F.L. R. Bennett, S.Y.B., Phys. Rev. A, 102, 041701(R) (2020)}