Abstract
A sensor has been developed for low frequency and DC electric fields E. The device is capable of measuring fields with varDelta mathrm{E}= 4 (1) V/cm resolution. It is based on a Y-cut Z-propagation lithium niobate electro-optic crystal. For a particular commercially available bare crystal, we achieved an in air time constant tau _mathrm{c}(mathrm air)= 6.4(1.8) h for the decay of the electro-optic signal. This enables field monitoring for several hours. As an application, we demonstrated that a constant electric field E^{mathrm{ext}} = 640 V/cm applied via external electrodes to a particular spherical glass container holding an Xe/He gas mixture decays inside this cell with a time constant tau _{E}^{mathrm{glass}} = 2.5(5) h. This is sufficient for the needs of experiments searching for a permanent electric dipole moment in ^{129}Xe. An integrated electric field sensor has been constructed which is coupled to a light source and light detectors via optical fibers. The sensor head does not contain any electrically conducting material.
Highlights
The observation of permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) in elementary particles, atoms, and molecules could provide hints towards physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics [1, 2]
We report here on the measurement of static electric fields inside a closed glass measurement cell placed inside the field of an external electrode system as well as on the development of an electro-optic field sensor based on a LiNbO3 crystal in the context of an EDM search on 129 Xe atoms [8, 9]
The response of the electro-optic signal from the crystal (see Eq (10)), which is exposed to a step function change in the external electric field, exhibits an exponential decrease of the output signal due to a slow buildup of polarization inside the material, which can be described by the time constant c [see Eq (1)]
Summary
The observation of permanent electric dipole moments (EDMs) in elementary particles, atoms, and molecules could provide hints towards physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics [1, 2]. A considerable number of experiments to search for EDMs are currently underway in several independent experiments, which employ different sample materials. They have in common that in each case, the sample is exposed to electric fields. For all these modern precision experiments [3,4,5,6], knowledge of the strength of a static electric field inside the respective fiducial volume is, pivotal, because the final achievable accuracy and the reliability of the measured results depend linearly on the electric field and on the
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