3D power frequency intensive electric field sensor based on a lithium niobate electro-optic crystal

In order to conveniently measure the power frequency intensive electric field in any direction in space, a lithium niobate (LN) crystal-based three dimensional (3D) intensive electric field sensor with an all-dielectric structure has been developed. A regular triangular prism structure with three 1D (one-dimensional) electric field sensors fixed on its three sides is designed and fabricated. By setting the orientation of the z -axes of the three 1D electric field sensors at 54.7° with respect to the three edges of the prism, the detection directions of the three 1D electric field sensors are perpendicular to each other. Compared to existing 3D electric field sensors that directly arrange three 1D electric field sensors along three mutually perpendicular directions, the overall device volume of the newly designed 3D sensor is significantly reduced. Experimental results reveal that the linear measurement ranges of the 3D electric field sensor along the three axes are 3.71 kV/m–388 kV/m, 2.78 kV/m–403 kV/m, and 4.50 kV/m–375 kV/m, respectively. When the electric field strength is 82.05 kV/m, the measurement error is less than 4.97% when the 3D electric field sensor is rotated 360° in the y o z and x o y planes.