Polarization resolving and imaging with a single-photon sensitive superconducting nanowire array.
Opt Express
; 29(7): 11021-11036, 2021 Mar 29.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33820223
ABSTRACT
Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) have attracted remarkable interest for visible and near-infrared single-photon detection due to their outstanding performance. However, conventional SNSPDs are generally used as binary photon-counting detectors. Another important characteristic of light, i.e., polarization, which can provide additional information of the object, has not been resolved using the standalone SNSPD. In this work, we present a first prototype of the polarimeter based on a four-pixel superconducting nanowire array, capable of resolving the polarization state of linearly-polarized light at the single-photon level. The detector array design is based on a division of focal plane configuration in which the orientation of each nanowire division (pixel) is offset by 45°. Each single nanowire pixel operates as a combination of a photon detector and almost linear polarization filter, with an average polarization extinction ratio of â¼10. The total system detection efficiency of the array is â¼1% at a total dark count rate of 680 cps, with a timing jitter of 126 ps, when the detector array is free-space coupled and illuminated with 1550-nm photons. The mean errors of the measured angle of polarization and degree of linear polarization were about -3° and 0.12, respectively. Furthermore, we successfully demonstrated polarization imaging at low-light level using the proposed detector. Our results pave the way for the development of a single-photon sensitive, fast, and large-scale integrated polarization polarimeter or imager. Such detector may find promising application in photon-starved polarization resolving and imaging with high spatial and temporal resolution.
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1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Tipo de estudo:
Diagnostic_studies
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Opt Express
Assunto da revista:
OFTALMOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2021
Tipo de documento:
Article