Electro-optic sensor for measurement of DC fields in the presence of space charge

This paper presents a theoretical analysis and experimental verification of electro-optic sensors used to measure DC electric fields in space charge environments. Both unipolar and bipolar charge environments were analyzed. The results suggest that in both cases the sensor output is linearly dependent on the measured electric field and independent of the density of space charge. To conduct the measurement, however, the prior knowledge of the type of charge present (unipolar-bipolar) is essential.