Open AccessDemonstration of a superconducting nanowire single photon detector with an ultrahigh polarization extinction ratio over 400
Author(s) -
Ran Xu,
Yongchao Li,
Fan Zheng,
Guanghao Zhu,
Lin Kang,
Labao Zhang,
Xiaoqing Jia,
Xuecou Tu,
Qingyuan Zhao,
Biaobing Jin,
Wei Xu,
Jian Chen,
Peiheng Wu
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.26.003947
Subject(s) - optics , extinction ratio , nanowire , polarization (electrochemistry) , detector , polarimetry , photon , optoelectronics , physics , polarizer , materials science , scattering , birefringence , wavelength , chemistry
Polarization sensitive photo-detectors are the key to the implementation of the polarimetric imaging systems, which are proved to have superior performance than their traditional counterparts based on intensity discriminations. In this article, we report the demonstration of a superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) of which the response is ultra-sensitive to the polarization state of the incident photons. Measurements carried out on a fabricated SNSPD show that a device efficiency of ~48% can be achieved at 1550 nm for the case of parallel polarization, which is ~420 times larger than that for the case of perpendicular polarization. While the reported polarization ultra-sensitive technique is demonstrated on a single-pixel SNSPD, it is also fully compatible with the multi-pixel SNSPD array platforms that emerged recently.