A fiber optic receiving antenna is provided that permits the reception of an incident electric field without re-radiating any portion of the incident power. The fiber optic receiving antenna includes a master oscillator for generating a reference signal and a fiber optic interferometer having first and second arms formed of respective optical fibers for receiving the reference signal. The respective electrooptic activity of the optical fibers that form the first and second arms differ such that the signals propagating along the first and second optical fibers will be modulated differently in response to an incident electric field. The fiber optic interferometer also includes a coupler for combining the signals that have propagated along the first and second arms and been differently modulated by the incident electric field. The fiber optic receiving antenna can also include a detector for receiving the combined signals and for generating a signal that is at least partially dependent upon the incident electric field. As such, a measure of the incident electric field can be determined by the fiber optic receiving antenna. However, the fiber optic receiving antenna does not generate any current and, therefore, does not re-radiate any portion of the incident power.
