Calibration of the pulsed electroacoustic technique in the presence of trapped charge

The influence of pulse voltage on the accuracy of charge density distribution in the pulsed electroacoustic technique (PEA) is discussed. It is shown that significant error can be introduced if a low dc voltage and high pulse voltage are used to calibrate charge density. However, our main focus in the present paper is to deal with one of the practical situations where space charge exists in the material prior to any measurements. The conventional calibration method can no longer be used to calibrate the charge density due to the interference by the charge on the electrode induced by space charge. A method has been proposed which is based on two measurements. Firstly, the sample containing the charge is measured without any applied voltage. The second measurement is carried out with a small external applied voltage. The applied voltage should be small enough so there is no disturbance of the existing charge in the sample. The difference of the two measurements can be used for calibration. An additional advantage of the proposed method avoids the influence of the pulse voltage on calibration and therefore gives a more accurate representation of space charge. The proposed method has been validated.