KEYWORDS: Spatial resolution, Signal to noise ratio, Temperature metrology, Polarization, Single mode fibers, Electrical engineering, Structural health monitoring, Diodes, Fiber Bragg gratings, Fiber optics sensors
The performance of the differential pulse-width pair Brillouin optical time domain analysis (DPP-BOTDA) is evaluated experimentally using either the gain from log normalization or linear normalization for the subtraction of traces collected with pump pulses of slightly different pulse widths. Using pump pulses widths of 43 ns and 40 ns, amplified Brillouin time domain probe traces were obtained for 10 km of standard single mode fiber. Two hotspots of length 30 cm and 6 m, separated by more than the spatial resolutions of the individual pulses and kept in a temperature controlled hot bath facility, were interrogated with temperature variations from 5 to 70°C, having probe signal gain of ~ 40% at the Brillouin Frequency Shift (BFS). This research work demonstrates, for the first time, that the use of linear gains for the subtraction step in creating the Brillouin gain spectrum, produces results for small to medium Brillouin frequency shifts (≤30 MHz), that deviate from the results of the subtraction of the logarithmic gains by as much as 2 MHz (~ 2°C), particularly for hotspots of the order of the spatial resolution of the DPP-BOTDA. For hotspots longer than the spatial resolution of the technique, the difference between results of the two processing methods show BFS deviations only at the end of the hotspots.
KEYWORDS: Signal to noise ratio, Optical amplifiers, Signal detection, Spatial resolution, Digital filtering, Scattering, Sensors, Fiber optics sensors
The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the measurement for direct-detection Brillouin optical time-domain analyzers is modelled and experimentally validated, with and without the use of optical pre-amplification. Results indicate that preamplification associated with a good-quality photo-detector improves considerably the actual SNR, with only 1.5 dB penalty compared to the ideal shot noise limit.
A novel technique is proposed to obtain a flexible and variable spatial resolution from a conventional Brillouin optical time-domain analyzers using a fast post-processing algorithm. The approach is very attractive since a fine spatial resolution can be obtained from a coarsely resolved measurement obtained using a pulse longer than the acoustic settling time, leading to a better overall sensing performance, in particular for sub-metric spatial resolutions, with no compromises on sensing range and measurement time.
Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry is used to perform distributed forward stimulated Brillouin scattering (FSBS) measurements. This configuration suppresses the need for an additional frequency scanning to evaluate the local Brillouin peak gain when probing the FSBS resonance. The use of a broad pass-band filter makes the system insensitive to moderate temperature or strain fluctuations, but enables to accurately retrieve any change in intensity due to FSBS.
A shape sensor exploiting Brillouin scattering measurements in multicore fibers is presented. Based on previous reports1, the shape sensor’s principle of operation is firstly described. The presented idea is realized through Brillouin Frequency Shift (BFS) measurements in the time domain along the entire multicore fiber. The BFS value is related to the strain value in each core and the differential inter-core strains lead to the bend radius and orientation. Authors present an experimental demonstration of the shape sensor using a 7-core microstructured optical fiber.
Non-local effects have been traditionally identified as one of the most limiting factors of the performance of Brillouin
optical time-domain analyzers. These phenomena, directly linked with the energy gained/lost by the pump pulse, limit
the probe power and ultimately the SNR of the system. Several solutions have been proposed, although none offers the
possibility to increase the probe power until its limit, the onset of amplified spontaneous Brillouin scattering. In this
work, we propose a technique that avoids non-local effects and permits to set the probe power at its maximum, reaching
a 100 km sensing distance with 2 meter resolution.
Aiming at taking full advantage of bipolar codes, a method using a three-tone probe is proposed to alleviate the probe power limitation imposed by pump depletion in Golay-coded Brillouin distributed fiber sensors. Experimental results validate the technique, which reduces significantly the measurement distortions induced by the gain/loss unbalance resulting from pump depletion/amplification. The method supports a probe power increment of more than 12.5 dB, resulting in low-uncertainty measurements (< 0.9 MHz) at a real 100 km distance, using a 200 km-long fiber loop and 2 m spatial resolution. The method is evaluated with a record figure-of-merit of 380’000.
A distributed fiber sensor based on a differential chirped-pulse pair Brillouin optical time domain analysis (DCPBOTDA) is proposed for sub-meter spatial resolution sensing. The technique is based on the subtraction of two measurements made with the same pump pulse widths, but differing in the final short section of the pulse by a positive or negative frequency chirp, respectively. Experimental results are compared with a precise theoretical modeling, validating the sub-meter sensing capabilities of the technique.
An 82-km sensing range Brillouin optical time-domain analysis distributed fiber sensor without systematic measurement error is proposed and first experimentally validated, in which the probe wave with two sidebands generates a dual gain-loss Brillouin interaction, giving rise to the remarkable suppressed pump depletion in long sensing range and a relatively narrow Brillouin gain spectrum. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results demonstrate that this technique is capable of accurate long-distance sensing. To the best of our knowledge, it is the simplest technique and does not require extra time for long-distance sensing (>50 km).
A novel single-ended distributed fiber sensor based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) with high spatial resolution
is proposed and experimentally validated. This single-ended technique is based on modulated optical long pulse that
consists of two sidebands. The probe wave is obtained by an attenuator and Fresnel reflection. The spatial resolution is
only limited by the fall-time of the long pulse without secondary "echo" phenomena. In addition, the configuration of
this single-ended technique is very simple and has no need to spend extra measurement time compared with conventional
BOTDA.
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