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Abstract The effect of an external electric field on the quark matter is an important question due to the presence of strong electric fields in heavy ion collisions. In the lattice QCD approach, the case of a real electric field suffers from the ‘sign problem’, and a classical electric field is often used similar as the case of chemical potential. Interestingly, in axial gauge a uniform classical electric field actually can correspond to an inhomogeneous imaginary chemical potential that varies with coordinate. On the other hand, with imaginary chemical potential, Roberge-Weiss (R-W) phase transition occurs. In this work, the case of a uniform classical electric field is studied by using lattice QCD approach, with the emphasis on the properties of the R-W phase. Novel phenomena show up at high temperatures. It is found that, the chiral condensation oscillates with z at high temperatures, and so is the absolute value of the Polyakov loop. It is verified that the charge density also oscillates with z at high temperatures. The Polyakov loop can be described by an ansatz A p + Σ q=u,d C q exp (L τ Q q iazeE z ), where A p is a complex number and C d > 0, C u ≥ 0 are real numbers that are fitted for different temperatures and electric field strengths. As a consequence, the behavior of the phase of Polyakov loop is different depending on whether the Polyakov loop encloses the origin, which implies a possible phase transition.