Abstract

We have devised a new form of heterodyne detection that allows an ordinary single-element detector to act as if its surface is divided into an array of separate detector elements. That is, one can determine the region on the surface where the photons struck. We have now experimentally realized a fifteen-element synthetic array on a single-element detector, allowing all the array elements to be read out continuously and in parallel over one electrical connection.

© 1996 Optical Society of America