Hi /sci/, I was hoping that maybe you would know this. Photodetectors

>>9135115
what is the source

>>9135155
Assuming I send a single photon with one of two polarizations - vertical.

It depends on the type of detector.
The most common types of semiconductor materials (Si/InGaAs etc) are made of isotropic materials, so they are not usually polarization sensitive.

There will be polarization sensitivity if the light is not normally incident (i.e. not straight on), but this is not intrinsic to photodetectors. (fresnel equations).

You can make a polarization-sensitive detector by creating anisotropy (birefringence) in the material. There are ways to align molecules in the detecting material so that significant absorption will occur only when the polarization matches one axis. Basically you engineer the material to have linear dichroism.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_dichroism
http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v10/n8/full/nnano.2015.112.html?foxtrotcallback=true

>>9135367
That's a very nice description and thank you for writing this post. Although I wonder if maybe you know some details about the efficiency of such detectors for vertical/horizontal polarizations? Even a rough estimate of difference in percentage of detected photons of one type and another type would help a lot. Thanks again.