Best practices in the measurement of circularly polarised photodetectors

Abstract

Circularly polarised light will revolutionise emerging technologies, including encrypted light-based communications, quantum computing, bioimaging and multi-channel data processing. In order to make use of these remarkable opportunities, high performance photodetectors that can accurately differentiate between left- and right-handed circularly polarised light are desperately needed. Whilst this potential has resulted in considerable research interest in chiral materials and circularly polarised photodetecting devices, their translation into real-world technologies is limited by non-standardised reporting and testing protocols. This mini-review provides an accessible introduction into the working principles of circularly polarised photodetectors and a comprehensive overview of the performance metrics of state-of-the-art devices. We propose a rigorous device characterisation procedure that will allow for standardised evaluation of novel devices, which we hope will accelerate research and investment in this area.