New design of a detachable bulk-optic Faraday effect current clamp

We describe a new design of a detachable bulk-optic sensor for electric cur rent detection. The sensor consists of two separate parts: an L-shaped arm cut to the critical angle and a straight arm to complement the L-shaped arm to form a right-angled triangular structure. With this design, the light b eam needs to undergo only one total internal reflection along the optical p ath, making it more forgiving than the conventional design in terms of fabr ication tolerance. An experimental sensor has been tested for its sensitivi ty to applied currents as well as to stray magnetic fields. (C) 2001 societ y of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.