High-frequency electric field intensity measurement based on frequency shift with high gain and wide frequency range

Abstract

For the safe operation of equipment and personal safety protection in high-voltage environments, the precise measurement of the high-frequency electric field is of paramount importance. Optical electric field sensor (OES) is a current research trend for high-frequency electric field measurement but is generally limited by low sensitivity and the need for high-speed acquisition modules. Here, we propose a high-frequency electric field intensity measurement approach based on frequency shift with a high gain and a wide frequency range. We used two different frequency shift methods, i.e., stimulated Brillouin scattering and down-conversion. Based on the former method, an amplification module is designed to enhance the OES signal with a frequency range from 11 GHz to 20 GHz and a noise-suppressed gain of up to 63 dB, and based on the latter one, the high-frequency OES signal is down-converted to a sub-MHz intermediate frequency signal. The frequency shift approach shows the potential to detect and analyze high-frequency electric fields with low cost and a small footprint, which is valuable for their applications in electronic warfare, high-voltage engineering, space exploration, etc.