Study of an integrated optical waveguide sensor with a tapered antenna for measurement of intense pulsed electric field

A lithium niobate (LiNbO3, LN) integrated optical electric field sensor fused with an optical waveguide Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI), a tapered antenna and a parallel electrode is analysed, fabricated and experimentally demonstrated. Theoretical calculation reveal that the half-wave electric field is extensively (approximate to 123%) influenced by the electrode gap but is slightly (approximate to 2%) influenced by the electrode length. Experiment results demonstrate that the linear dynamic range of sensor1 (L-el=5 mm) and sensor2 (L-el= 1 mm) are 29 dB (5 -140 kV/m) and 20 dB (15-150 kV/m) respectively. Both the theoretical calculations and experiment results investigate that it is possible to improve the sensitivity while keep the maximum detectable electric field remains almost the same by deigning the sensor with longer electrode, which results a larger linear measureable dynamic range.