We report, to our knowledge, for the first time on humidity-induced Brillouin frequency shifts in perfluorinated graded index polymer optical fibers. A linear relation between Brillouin frequency shift and humidity was observed. Furthermore, the humidity coefficient of the Brillouin frequency shift is demonstrated to be a function of temperature (-107 to -64 kHz/%r.h. or -426 to -49 kHz m/g in the range of 20 to 60 °C). An analytical description proves temperature and humidity as two mutually independent effects on the Brillouin frequency shift.

We demonstrate (and are the first to do so) 63 km Brillouin Optical Frequency-Domain Analysis (BOFDA) for temperature and strain monitoring using a 100 km fiber loop. The use of BOFDA for long-range applications can be considered a novel approach, as previous investigations focused on the utilization of Brillouin Optical Time-Domain Reflectometry and Analysis (BOTDR and BOTDA, respectively). At 51.7 km, a 100 m hotspot (37 ∘C) was detected without using distributed Raman amplification or image processing.

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This paper studies the multi-wavelength capability of our recently developed tracking and beam-steering fiber-wirelessfiber (FWF) terminals for simultaneous, full-duplex optical wireless communication over telecommunication bands widely used in optical access networks. Tracked terminal-to-terminal concurrent data transmission over O and C bands is demonstrated.

We present a miniaturised free-space quantum key distribution (QKD) system which allows key exchange between a handheld transmitter and a fixed terminal. The QKD system requires to be optically aligned emphasising the need of a beamsteering unit for later applications. To maintain within the size, weight and power restrictions, the active beamsteering hardware is exclusively located inside the receiver. Our target is consumer use so we present rigorous characterisation against a range of background light levels to show anticipated performance outside of a laboratory environment.Experimental results show a reduction in the raw count rate commensurate with the transmission of the added components (74.5%) and a small degradation of the error rate (0.5 percentage points) due to the worse signal-to-noise ratio. These combine to a 50% reduction in estimated secret key rate of the system with the additional components for beam steering.

We present, to our knowledge for the first time, a 100-km Brillouin Optical Frequency-Domain Analysis (BOFDA) employing a 200-km fiber loop. Compared to our previous publication, enhanced sensor length, sensor accuracy and spatial resolution are presented. The performance improvements are achieved by applying distributed Raman amplification (DRA) and a digital high-pass filter. We report on temperature measurements over sensing distances of 75 km and 100 km both with a 12.5-m spatial resolution. Temperature changes of 5 ° C have been measured along 75 km sensing fiber. A temperature change of 30 ° C has been detected at 99.5 km.

In this paper a fibre free-space fibre link that allows a quantum key distribution (QKD) signal and high-speed data to be transmitted in a single optical beam is presented. This setup has the potential to provide ultra-high data rate secure wireless connectivity within indoor spaces. Both quantum and classical channels were transmitted using wavelengths in the C band, over a range of 2.5 m in free space and in the presence of a 200 lx background illumination. Raman noise caused by the light propagating in the optical fibres which provide connections to the free-space segment, together with geometric loss of the free-space link are the major impairments. Results yield secret key rates of 2.343 kbit/s when the QKD signal is sent without high-speed data (and associated Raman noise), and rates of 1.305 -1.996 kbit/s when high-speed data is also transmitted (depending on spectral separation of QKD and classical information). Further, it is shown that the secret key rate can be optimised by increasing loss to attenuate the Raman noise by misalignment of the link. Improvement of the secret key rate from 1.305 kbit/s to 1.887 kbit/s was shown using this method.

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