Electrooptic measurement of three-dimensional nonuniform electric field

An electrooptic method is useful for measuring electric fields without disturbing them. Our investigations have been concerned with measurements of electric field distribution. Three-dimensional nonuniform electric field distributions were measured in nitrobenzene using the Kerr electrooptic measurement. The field distributions to be measured were produced in a sphere-to-sphere electrode system. The optical system consisted of a He-Ne laser, a polarizer, a quarter-wave plate, an experimental cell, an analyzer, and a photodetector. When a negative high voltage pulse was applied to the electrode system, the light intensity transmitted to the analyzer was measured using the photodetector. Intensity measurements were carried out at many points from θ = 0 to π around the electrode system. From the data obtained, the electric field distribution, i.e., the strength and direction of each electric field vector in the measured plane, was reconstructed using a computed tomography (CT) technique. The measured distributions were compared with the theoretical ones calculated using an analytical method.