%0 Journal Article %T Electric Field Induced Lyman-α Emission of a hydrogen beam for electric field measurements %+ Physique des interactions ioniques et moléculaires (PIIM) %+ KTH Royal Institute of Technology [Stockholm] (KTH ) %A Chérigier-Kovacic, Laurence %A Ström, Peter %A Lejeune, Aurélien %A Doveil, F %< avec comité de lecture %@ 0034-6748 %J Review of Scientific Instruments %I American Institute of Physics %V 86 %N 6 %P 063504 %8 2015 %D 2015 %R 10.1063/1.4922856 %Z Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Instrumentation and Detectors [physics.ins-det] %Z Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Plasma Physics [physics.plasm-ph]Journal articles %X EFILE (Electric Field Induced Lyman-α Emission) is a new way of measuring weak electric fields in vacuum and in a plasma. It is based on the emission of Lyman-α radiation (121.6nm) by a low-energy metastable H atom beam due to Stark-quenching of the 2s level induced by the field. In this paper, we describe the technique in detail. Test measurements have been performed in vacuum between two plates polarized at a controlled voltage. The intensity of emitted radiation, proportional to the square of the field modulus, has been recorded by a lock-in technique, which gives an excellent signal to noise ratio. These measurements provide an in-situ calibration that can be used to obtain the absolute value of the electric field. A diagnostic of this type can help to address a long standing challenge in plasma physics, namely the problem of measuring electric fields without disturbing the equilibrium of the system that is being studied. %G English %2 https://amu.hal.science/hal-01466150/document %2 https://amu.hal.science/hal-01466150/file/RSI2015.pdf %L hal-01466150 %U https://amu.hal.science/hal-01466150 %~ CNRS %~ UNIV-AMU %~ PIIM