Measurement of the Pockels effect in quartz at 9 GHz

Abstract
Measurement at microwave frequencies of electro-optic constants in optically active media involves a complex index-matching procedure in which both the difference between the microwave phase velocity and optical propagation velocity, and the dispersion of the plane of polarization of contributions to the optical modulation from different sections of the material must be taken into account. A method of measuring the coefficient r11 in crystalline quartz at 9 GHz is described and it is shown that the result is r11=17 × 10−13 m v−1, close to the value predicted by Cady from measured values of the d.c. coefficient and the piezoelectric constants.