A wide-band electro-optical E-field probe powered by a solar cell

A wide-band electro-optical E-field probe based on a short dipole antenna directly modulating a MQW/RWG laser, which is biased utilising a 2V solar cell, has been developed and characterised in the frequency range 0.5 to 18 GHz. A minimum detectable field strength better than 10 mV/m was achieved from 0.5 to 12 GHz for an S/N of 10 dB using a 10 Hz measurement bandwidth. Dynamic range and antenna patterns are also reported.