A method for measuring the transverse half-wave voltage of LiNbO3

For revealing the essence of electro-optic effect and measuring the transverse half-wave voltage in LiNbO₃ crystal, the strict derivation method from the physical mechanism was put forward and a good method was used. The strict derivation method was from the ellipsoid equation for the light propagation. When LiNbO₃ crystal had carried the voltage in transverse the coordinate system did not rotating only the lengths of the main axle were changed. The Taylor expansion was used, the higher order small magnitudes were omitted, and the Pockels effect was deduced. The good method of the experiment was that the maximum putout was 600V for the power supply with a 1/4 wave plate were used under laboratory conditions. The transverse half-wave voltage could be determined 360V. The ratio of the length and thickness of LiNbO₃ crystal sample could be judged about 7 was agreed with the practical sample from the theory of strict derivation. The results shown that the methods were suit for measuring the electro-optic characteristics of all electro-optic material.