Single-Photon Time-Stretch Infrared Spectroscopy

Sensitive mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy is highly demanded in various fields ranging from industrial inspection, biomedical diagnosis to astronomical observation. However, the detection sensitivity of conventional MIR spectrometers is severely limited by excessive noises for existing infrared sensors, which hinders widespread use in photon-scarce scenarios. Here, a broadband MIR single-photon time-stretch spectrometer is devised and implemented based on high-fidelity spectral upconversion and time-correlated coincidence counting. Specifically, a nanophotonic supercontinuum illumination covering 2.4-4.2 mu m is nonlinearly converted to the near-infrared band, where low-loss single-mode fiber and high-performance silicon detector can be leveraged to facilitate dispersive operation and sensitive detection, respectively. The arrival time for the dispersed upconversion photons is precisely registered with a low-timing-jitter photon counter, which enables us to obtain a high spectral resolution about 0.5 cm-1 under a low-light-level illumination down to 0.14 photons/nm/pulse. In comparison to previous MIR upconversion spectrometers, the presented time-stretch architecture favors single-pixel simplicity and high-throughput acquisition for the single-photon spectral measurement. The achieved MIR spectroscopic features of broadband spectral coverage, sub-wavenumber resolution, single-photon sensitivity, and room-temperature operation would stimulate immediate applications in material and life sciences. To date, time-stretch spectroscopy has most been restricted in the visible or near-infrared region. The highly-demanded extension to the mid-infrared regime is hindered by the deficiencies on low-loss dispersive media and high-bandwidth optical detectors. Here, the authors report an upconversion time-stretch infrared spectrometer at the single-photon level, which features single-pixel simplicity, sub-wavenumber resolution, and high-throughput acquisition. The achieved performances will stimulate immediate applications in material and life sciences, where infrared spectroscopic analysis at high sensitivity and high resolution are required over a wide spectral range. image