@Lundin:2006wu], we can straightforwardly study the polarization properties of the outgoing photons.

Moreover, and from a conceptual level even more important, our approach will also allow us to study photon emission from the vacuum subjected to macroscopic field configurations which are hard to describe as a collection of photons, like, e.g., rotating inhomogeneous magnetic fields.

Our paper is organized as follows: In Sec. \[sec:calculation\] we outline the derivation of the stimulated photon emission rate, and provide explicit analytical results for a particular electromagnetic field configuration, mimicking the superposition of two counter-propagating laser pulses with the same characteristics. In the diffraction limit these expressions are of a particularly simple form. Most strikingly, the directional emission characteristics of the induced photons becomes independent of the laser parameters and is described by a generic function. The number of photons emitted in a specific spherical angle is obtained straightforwardly upon integration of the directional emission characteristics and multiplication with an overall factor determined by the parameters of the used lasers. Hence, we can easily provide estimates of the number of emitted photons for any desired laser parameters. Section \[seq:Ex+Res\] is devoted to the discussion of some explicit results. We end with conclusions and an 