Abstract

We present a comprehensive, spatiotemporal, modal theory of submillimeter-wave and far-infrared power detectors. The theory is based on the contraction of the coherence tensor of the light with another coherence tensor that incorporates all of the physics of the detector. The theory is extremely general and applies to detectors of any bandwidth, with light in any state of polarization and spatiotemporal coherence. The theory applies equally to quasi-monochromatic and pulsed systems. We show that the tensor associated with the detector is a measureable quantity and outline a procedure for its experimental determination. We derive expressions for the statistical properties of a detector’s output, including the correlations between the outputs of different detectors, say, in an array or interferometer. The theory provides a clear conceptual understanding of how any general detector couples to the modes of an optical system and thereby provides a powerful and flexible way of modeling the behavior of detectors and instruments.

© 2007 Optical Society of America

Quantum-statistical analysis of multimode far-infrared and submillimeter-wave astronomical interferometers

Stafford Withington, Michael P. Hobson, and George Saklatvala
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 22(9) 1937-1946 (2005)

Modeling the intensity and polarization response of planar bolometric detectors

Christopher N. Thomas, Stafford Withington, David T. Chuss, Edward J. Wollack, and S. Harvey Moseley
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 27(5) 1219-1231 (2010)

Optical modeling techniques for multimode horn-coupled power detectors for submillimeter and far-infrared astronomy

Christopher N. Thomas and Stafford Withington
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 30(8) 1703-1713 (2013)

Optical theory of partially coherent thin-film energy-absorbing structures for power detectors and imaging arrays

Stafford Withington and Christopher N. Thomas
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 26(6) 1382-1392 (2009)

Power coupled between partially coherent vector fields in different states of coherence

Stafford Withington and Ghassan Yassin
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 18(12) 3061-3071 (2001)