Abstract: Obvious differences of infrared polarization information exist in different objects and different states of the same object. These differences can constitute the target detection information. The physical innate characteristic of target detection based on infrared polarization imaging technology was briefly introduced. The principle of the polarized bidirectional reflectance distribution function was mainly elaborated. The infrared polarization imaging detection models were cited. Application advantages of infrared polarization imaging technology were outlined. The structure classification and the characteristic of the infrared polarization imaging system were concisely summarized. Progress in target detection and recognition field of infrared polarization imaging technology was described. The imaging theory, the basic research experiments and the applications in target detection of the infrared polarization imaging technology were described in details. In the end, the advantages of infrared polarization imaging were pointed out, and some advices to the development of the field in our country were put forward.