Faraday mirror-typed optical current transformers and its theoretical analysis

A Faraday mirror-typed optical current transformer (OCT) design with turn-back optical paths is proposed to overcome the harmful effects of the linear birefringence inside bulk glass current sensing head, which can double the sensitivity and improve the state of polarization of the system output. The theoretical analysis of the working principle, the simulation of the polarization state of the output light beam and the comparison between it and the OCT with polarization preserving total reflection (PPTR) layers are presented. The results show that this design has a good suppressing effect on the degeneration of the polarization state of the output light, which has certain reference significance on the performance improvement of the present bulk glass OCT, and the development of practical OCTs.