Quadratic electro-optic properties of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 transparent ceramics under both DC and AC bias

Appl Opt. 2012 May 20;51(15):2870-6. doi: 10.1364/AO.51.002870.

Abstract

The basic quadratic electro-optic properties of Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3-PbTiO3 (PMN-PT) transparent ceramics have been studied under both DC and AC electric field bias. The contribution of piezoelectric resonance to electro-optic effect for this quadratic electro-optic ceramics material has been experimentally demonstrated and theoretically analyzed. It is found that, at the piezoelectric resonance frequencies, the piezoelectric induced electro-optic effect dominates and leads to a dramatically high sensitivity for weak electric signal detection. About 20 dB signal-to-noise ratio is attained when detecting AC electric field strength of 1 V/m with optimized DC bias. Besides, the effects of AC frequency and amplitude on halfwave voltage V(π) of PMN-PT are investigated.