Method for measuring the effective value (Ueff) of an alternating
voltage, comprising the steps of: (a) applying the alternating
voltage to a Pockels
cell (12) of an alternating
voltmeter (10), (b) guiding an incident
light beam (24) linearly polarized in an input polarization direction through the Pockels
cell (12) to produce a linearly polarized outgoing
light beam (26) whose output polarization direction is rotated by a
deflection angle relative to an input polarization direction of the incident
light beam (24), (c) guiding the outgoing light beam (26) through a
polarizer (16) to produce a polarization-filtered light beam (28), (d) measuring an alternating
voltage-dependent intensity of the polarization-filtered light beam (28) to obtain an electrical measurement
signal (Umess), and (e) determining the alternating voltage from the electrical measurement
signal (Umess),(f) wherein determining the alternating voltage comprises low-pass filtering of the electrical measurement
signal (Umess) so that a temporal measurement signal average (Aac(t)) is obtained, characterized in that (g) the effective value (Ueff) is determined from the temporal measurement signal average (Aac(t)) and characterized by the steps: (h) applying a
positive feedback DC voltage to the Pockels
cell (12), (i) guiding an incident light beam (24) linearly polarized in the input polarization direction through the Pockels cell (12) so that a linearly polarized outgoing light beam (26) is created, the output polarization direction of which is rotated by a
deflection angle to an input polarization direction of the incident light beam (24), (j) guiding the outgoing light beam (26) through the
polarizer (16) so that the polarization-filtered light beam (28) is created,(k) measuring a
DC voltage-related positive voltage intensity of the polarization-filtered light beam (28), (l) applying a negative
DC voltage feedback to the Pockels cell (12), (m) measuring a DC voltage-related
negative voltage intensity of the polarization-filtered light beam (28), and (n) determining the AC voltage from the positive voltage intensity, the
negative voltage intensity, and the AC voltage-related intensity.