Abstract

We demonstrate new designs of piezoelectric quartz transducers for fiber-optic voltage sensors, which passively eliminate the sensitivity of the sensor to temperature. Previously¹-² fiber-optic sensors for the measurement of electric fields and voltages were described. The key element is a quartz transducer which periodically changes its dimensions in an alternating electric field (Fig. 1). The piezoelectric deformation is interrogated using either Mach - Zehnder or two-mode fiber interferometry. Quartz single crystals are well-suited as piezoelectric transducer material because they have a low dielectric constant and a large resistivity, exhibit a piezoelectric effect of useful magnitude, and allow line integration of the electric field, i.e., geometry-independent voltage measurement, for certain crystal orientations.

© 1994 Optical Society of America