Improvements to the Electrically Stimulated Acoustic Wave Method for Analyzing Bulk Space Charge

The Electrically Stimulated Acoustic Wave method for observing resident space charge in dielectric insulators involves applying a fast and relatively small voltage pulse across a material containing space charge. The perturbation launches a stress wave which propagates at the velocity of sound and is received by a piezoelectric transducer mounted in the acoustic path. This non-destructive technique does not liberate space charge so that it may be performed in situ during any space charge generating experiment. The improvements to this system allow it to detect space charge distributions that are more broadly distributed than in previous work.