Silica microwire-based interferometric electric field sensor.

Abstract

Silica microwire, as an optical waveguide whose diameter is close to or smaller than the wavelength of the guided light, is of great interest because it exhibits a number of excellent properties such as tight confinement, large evanescent fields, and great configurability. Here, we report a silica microwire-based compact photonic sensor for real-time detection of high electric field. This device contains an interferometer with propylene carbonate cladding. Based on the Kerr electro-optic effect of propylene carbonate, the applied intensive transient electric field can change the refractive index of propylene carbonate, which shifts the interferometric fringe. Therefore, the electric field could be demodulated by monitoring the fringe shift. The sensor was successfully used to detect alternating electric field with frequency of 50Hz and impulse electric field with duration time of 200μs. This work lays a foundation for future applications in electric field sensing.