New design of optical electric-current sensor for sensitivity improvement

Author

Yi, Benshun ; Chu, B.C.B. ; Chiang, K.S. ; Chung, Henry S H

Author_Institution

Optoelectron. Res. Centre, City Univ. of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong

Volume

49

Issue

2

fYear

2000

fDate

4/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

418

Lastpage

423

Abstract

A new design of optical electric-current sensor based on the Faraday effect is proposed and demonstrated experimentally. The sensor probe is a precisely cut glass prism with a high reflection coating on the base surface at the far end. Inside the prism, the light beam is allowed to bounce up and down at the critical angle and retrace its path back by the reflection coating. The sensor demonstrated offers a sensitivity of six times higher as compared with conventional designs and suffers from fewer optical losses. The design can also reduce the package size of the sensor probe

Keywords

Faraday effect; electric current measurement; magneto-optical sensors; optical losses; optical prisms; power system measurement; Faraday effect; Jones matrix; high reflection coating; multiple critical angle reflection; open-air ring core type sensor; optical electric-current sensor; optical path length; power system measurement; precisely cut glass prism; reduced optical loss; reduced package size; sensitivity improvement; sensor design; Current measurement; Faraday effect; Glass; Magnetic cores; Magnetic sensors; Optical design; Optical reflection; Optical saturation; Optical sensors; Probes;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Instrumentation and Measurement, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9456

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/19.843089

Filename

843089