Full-Stokes polarimetric measurements and imaging using a fractal superconducting nanowire single-photon detector

Abstract

Measuring the states of polarization (SoP) of light is fundamentally important for applications ranging from communication, sensing, spectroscopy, imaging, to navigation. Superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPDs) are ideal detectors of choice for faint-light detection and measurements, but SNSPDs themselves cannot resolve the SoP of photons. Here, based on a fractal SNSPD, we demonstrate a full-Stokes polarimetric measurement system that can measure arbitrary SoP of faint light. The measured SoPs are in excellent agreement with those of a state-of-the-art commercial polarimeter, but the sensitivity of our system reaches − 86.6 d B m , which is 26.6 dB better than that of the commercial counterpart. As a direct application, we further demonstrate remote polarimetric imaging (i.e., polarimetric LiDAR) with a complete set of polarimetric contrast.

Fractal superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors and their applications in polarimetric imaging

“… Polarimetric imaging [25][26][27]  Time-of-flight LiDAR 23,28  Non-line-of-sight imaging 29,30  Single-pixel imaging 31  Dual-comb ranging 32  Measurements of time-resolved photoluminescence 33,34 development of the fractal SNSPDs. In 2020, we demonstrated the fiber-coupled fractal SNSPD.…”

“…Further optimization of the optical micro-cavity and the fill factor resulted in 91% SDE max at the wavelength of 1540 nm, 23 and 96% SDE max at the wavelength of 930 nm. 24 The high-performance arced-fractal SNSPDs have been used in several applications, including full-Stokes polarimetric imaging, [25][26][27] ToF LiDAR, 23,28 NLOS imaging, 29,30 single-pixel imaging, 31 dual-comb ranging, 32 and the measurements of TRPL. 33,34…”

“…[20][21][22][23][24] In particular, over 80% SDE at several wavelengths have been demonstrated [22][23][24] -the highest SDE has reached 96% at the wavelength of 930 nm. 24 We have also applied the high-performance fractal SNSPDs in several applications, including polarimetric imaging, [25][26][27] time-of-flight (ToF) LiDAR, 23,28 non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging, 29,30 single-pixel imaging, 31 dual-comb ranging, 32 and the measurements of time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) from individual semiconductor quantum dots. 33,34 In this paper, we will review the research and development of the fractal SNSPDs, and then present the applications of the fractal SNSPDs in full-Stokes polarimetric imaging.…”

Technology of 4D imaging LiDARs

“…One is the frequency-modulation-continuous-wave (FMCW), the other is time-of-flight (ToF). The ToF 3,4 , which measures the round-trip delay of an optical pulse, is commonly used as the ranging measurement in commercial LiDAR systems, i.e., auto-auxiliary driving system and automatic guidance, as shown in Fig. 1(a).…”

Azimuth mapping of fibrous tissue in linear dichroism-sensitive photoacoustic microscopy

“…Polarization is a contrast-enhancing indicator for optical sensing. Since several materials exhibit polarization specificity, such as that associated with birefringence, various optical imaging modalities have been used to evaluate the anisotropic characteristics qualitatively and quantitatively [1] , [2] , [3] , [4] , [5] . Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT), polarized light microscopy (PM), and second-harmonic generation microscopy have been prominently used for tissue polarimetry and visualization of fibrous tissues in biomedical applications [6] , [7] , [8] , [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] , [13] , [14] .…”