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

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 dBm, 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. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

Measuring the states of polarization of light is crucial for various applications, and while conventional detectors cannot resolve the polarization, our research presents a complete polarimetric measurement system that achieves high sensitivity and accurate results, with the additional application of remote polarimetric imaging.