Dynamic measurement for electric field sensor based on wavelength-swept laser.

We demonstrate for the first time to our knowledge a dynamic measurement for an electric field sensor using a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) Fabry-Perot etalon and a wavelength-swept laser. It is well known that the wavelengths of the transmitted peaks of the NLC Fabry-Perot etalon depend on the applied electric field. The change in the effective refractive index of the NLC is measured according to the applied static electric field. The effective refractive index decreases from 1.67 to 1.51 as the applied the electric field intensity is increased. In addition, we measure the frequency of the dynamic variation in the electric field using a highspeed wavelength-swept laser. By measuring the modulation frequency of the transmitted peaks in the temporal domain, the frequency of the amplitude-modulated electric field can be estimated. The frequencies of the measured dynamic variations show a close agreement with the amplitude modulation frequencies of the induced electric field. (C)2014 Optical Society of America