A scheme for the detection of photons generated by vacuum mixing processes is proposed to observe the quantum electrodynamic photon-photon interaction. The strategy consists in the utilization of a high numerical aperture parabolic mirror that tightly focuses two copropagating laser beams with different frequencies. This produces a very-high-intensity region in the vicinity of the focus, where the photon-photon nonlinear interaction can then induce new electromagnetic radiation by wave-mixing processes. These processes are investigated theoretically. The field at the focus is obtained from the Stratton-Chu vector diffraction theory, which can accommodate any configuration of an incoming laser beam. The number of photons generated is evaluated for an incident radially polarized beam. It is demonstrated that using this field configuration, vacuum mixing processes could be detected with envisaged laser technologies.

• Received 11 July 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.91.031801