Two-dimensional Kerr electrooptic measurement of nonuniform electric fields by CT method

It is very difficult to measure nonuniform electric field distributions in insulators. The optical measurements of the electric field were investigated in nitrobenzene using the Kerr effect. A sphere-to-sphere electrode or a sphere-to-plane electrode system was used to produce the nonuniform electric field. A rectangular test cell was made of teflon with two glass windows. A He-Ne laser was used for a light source. The intensity of the light transmitted through the cell was measured with a photodiode. The two-dimensional electric field distribution expressed in absolute value was reconstructed by the computed tomography (CT) method. The measured electric fields were compared with the theoretical one and good agreement was obtained.