Simultaneous measurement of two orthogonal components of electric field using a Pockels device

Abstract

A new optical method using a Pockels device is developed to simultaneously measure two directional components of an electric field. In this method, an output light beam from a Pockels device is split into two beams and then each of the beams is transmitted through a polarizing plate whose polarization direction is different, depending on the measured field component. The relation between two measured field components and the required polarization direction of the polarizing plate is theoretically derived for representative materials of the Pockels device and is also examined experimentally. A field sensor is made on the basis of this new idea and is used to investigate a nonuniform electric field. An electric field changing spatially by 20% per centimeter can be measured with an accuracy of 5% using the Pockels sensor. The sensor is successfully applied to measure an impulse electric field between a sphere-to-sphere gap.