A novel configuration of a phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) utilizing dual-pulse phase modulations of the probe signal is presented and experimentally demonstrated. The proposed modulation method enables one to perform the demodulation and reconstruction of an external perturbation signal which impacts the fiber using the phase diversity technique. The proposed phase-sensitive OTDR has some advantages in comparison with conventional solutions, which are discussed. The feasibility of a double pulse OTDR with phase modulation is demonstrated and theoretically proved.

Abstract. Interstellar scintillation multi-frequency observations of PSR 0329+54 in the frequency range from 102 MHz to 5 GHz were analysed to estimate the spectrum of interstellar plasma inhomogeneities in the direction of this pulsar. Based on the theory of diffractive scintillation, the composite structure function of phase fluctuations covering a large range of turbulence scales was constructed. We found that the spectrum is well described by a power law with n = 3.5 for scales from 10 6 to 10 9 m, which differs from the value known for a Kolmogorov spectrum. We can, however, within the accuracy of our data not exclude a Kolmogorov spectrum. It became also clear that angular refraction of emission must be taken into account to fit the data points at all observing frequencies. The size of the irregularities responsible for the angular refraction is estimated to be about 3 × 10 13 m. They can be identified with clouds of neutral hydrogen that can be considered as holes of electron density.

In the present paper we perform, for the first time, the analysis of the average intensity noise power level at the output of a coherent phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (phase-OTDR) with a semiconductor laser source. The origin of the considered intensity noise lies in random phase fluctuations of a semiconductor laser source field. These phase fluctuations are converted to intensity noise in the process of interference of backscattered light. This intensity noise inevitably emerges in every phase-OTDR spatial channel and limits its sensitivity to external phase actions. The analysis of intensity noise in a phase-OTDR was based on the study of a fiber scattered-light interferometer (FSLI) which is treated as the constituent part of OTDR. When considered independently, FSLI has a broad intensity noise spectrum at its output; when FSLI is treated as a part of a phase-OTDR, due to aliasing effect, the wide FSLI noise spectrum is folded within the spectral band, determined by the probe pulse repetition frequency. In the analysis one of the conventional phase-OTDR schemes with rectangular dual-pulse probe signal was considered, the FSLI, which corresponds to this OTDR scheme, has two scattering fiber segments with additional time delay introduced between backscattered fields. The average intensity noise power and resulting noise spectrum at the output of this FSLI are determined by the degree of coherence of the semiconductor laser source, the length of the scattering fiber segments and by the additional time delay between the scattering segments. The average intensity noise characteristics at the output of the corresponding phase-OTDR are determined by the analogous parameters: the source coherence, the lengths of the parts constituting the dual-pulse and the time interval which separates the parts of the dual-pulse. In the paper the expression for the average noise power spectral density (NPSD) at the output of FSLI was theoretically derived and experimentally verified. Based on the found average NPSD of FSLI, a simple relation connecting the phase-OTDR parameters and the limiting level of full average intensity noise power at its output was derived. This relation was verified by experimental measurement of the average noise power at the output of phase-OTDR. The limiting noise level, considered in the paper, determines the fundamental noise floor for the phase-OTDR with given parameters of the source coherence, probe pulse length and time delay between two pulses constituting the dual-pulse.

In the present communication we propose a novel approach to the realization of a phase sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (OTDR) which is capable of a precise reconstruction of the phase signal which impacts the arbitrary point of a fiber-optic line. The method uses a dual-pulse probe signal with diverse carrier optical frequency within each half of the double pulse. The quasi-periodic intensity pattern which emerges as a result of double frequency backscattered signal interference contains the information of the external action over the fiber. The phase signal is extracted with the aid of an I/Q quadrature demodulation scheme, realized at the receiving side of the OTDR. The feasibility and limitations of the proposed scheme are theoretically proved and experimentally demonstrated.