Proposal of Brillouin optical correlation-domain reflectometry (BOCDR)

Abstract

We propose a Brillouin optical correlation-domain reflectometry (BOCDR), which can measure the distribution of strain and/or temperature along an optical fiber from a single end, by detecting spontaneous Brillouin scattering with controlling the interference of continuous lightwaves. In a pulse-based conventional Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry (BOTDR), it is difficult in principle to achieve a spatial resolution less than 1 m, and the measurement time is as long as 5-10 minutes. On the contrary, the continuous-wave-based BOCDR can exceed the limit of 1-m resolution, and realize much faster measurement and random access to measuring positions. Spatial resolution of 40 cm was experimentally demonstrated with sampling rate of 50 Hz.

Observation of Brillouin gain spectrum in optical fibers in telecommunication band: Effect of pump wavelength

“…Over the past few decades, optical fiber sensors based on Brillouin scattering have been extensively studied owing to their ability to measure strain and temperature distribution [1,2,3,4,5]. Brillouin scattering is known to be one of the most significant nonlinear phenomena in optical fibers [6].…”

Measurement of large-strain dependence of optical propagation loss in perfluorinated polymer fibers for use in seismic diagnosis

“…Researchers have developed various types of sensing schemes, including time- [1,2], frequency- [3], and correlation-domain [4,5] techniques. Conventionally, their sensing heads were composed of glass fibers (especially standard silica glass fibers), resulting in fiber fracture at relatively small strains of ≲3%.…”

Brillouin signal amplification in pumped erbium-doped optical fiber

“…Various sensing schemes have been developed, such as time-, frequency-, and correlation-domain techniques [4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. Among them, time-domain techniques have been reported to have the widest measurement range, which is limited by optical attenuation.…”