  Vacuum polarization, an effect predicted nearly 70 years ago, is still yet to
be directly detected despite significant experimental effort. Previous attempts
have made use of large liquid-helium cooled electromagnets which inadvertently
generate spurious signals that mask the desired signal. We present a novel
approach for the ultra-sensitive detection of optical birefringence that can be
usefully applied to a laboratory detection of vacuum polarization. The new
technique has a predicted birefringence measurement sensitivity of $\Delta n
\sim 10^{20}$ in a 1 second measurement. When combined with the extreme
polarizing fields achievable in this design we predict that a vacuum
polarization signal will be seen in a measurement of just a few days in
duration.
