Monolithic High‐Accuracy Long‐Wave Infrared Full‐Stokes Polarimeter Based on a Meta‐QWIP

Abstract

Full‐Stokes polarization perception by a single measurement using a monolithic polarimeter is highly valuable for various optical sciences and technologies. However, the unsatisfactory polarization extinction ratios (PERs), impaired responsivities, and low Stokes parameter measurement accuracy of monolithic full‐Stokes polarimeters pose significant challenges for practical applications. Here, a metasurface‐integrated quantum well infrared photodetector (meta‐QWIP) is presented for long‐wavelength infrared full‐Stokes polarimetry. Leveraging the dual polarization selection by the metasurface and the quantum wells, a high linear PER (432) and a high circular PER (21) are achieved. Moreover, the polarization‐converted and intensified local field increases the responsivity by tens of times. The metasurfaces are properly designed to configure the optoelectronic polarization eigenvectors of the 6 pixels for an optoelectronic conversion matrix (OCM) with a low condition number. By solving an inverse problem of the OCM, high‐accuracy full‐Stokes parameters reconstruction (RMSE below 1%) is achieved. The full‐Stokes polarimetric imaging using our device demonstrates its superiority in resolving targets. This work advances high‐performance monolithic LWIR full‐Stokes polarimeters.