All electrical detection of the stokes parameters of IR/THz radiation

A fast room temperature pure photoelectrical detection scheme for obtaining the information about polarization ellipticity of laser radiation (described by the Stokes parameters) with a bandwidth from the infrared to the terahertz range is reported. The device consists of two elements, back-to-back, which detect the polarization ellipticity and the ellipse azimuthal angle. The first element utilizes the circular photogalvanic effect in a narrow gap semiconductor and the second the linear photogalvanic effect in a bulk piezoelectric semiconductor. In contrast to optical methods we propose an all-electric approach, which is demonstrated by applying a large number of different laser sources.