High SNR Φ-OTDR with Multi-Transverse Modes Heterodyne Matched-Filtering Technology

Phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR) has attracted attention in scientific research and industry because of its distributed dynamic linear response to external disturbances. However, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Φ-OTDR is still a limited factor by the weak Rayleigh Backscattering coefficient. Here, the multi-transverse modes heterodyne matched-filtering technology is proposed to improve the system SNR. The capture efficiency and nonlinear threshold are increased with multiple transverse modes in few-mode fibers; the incident light energy is permitted to be enlarged by a wider probe pulse by using heterodyne matched-filtering without spatial resolution being deteriorated. As far as we know, this is the first time that both multi-transverse modes integration method and digital heterodyne matched filtering method have been used to improve the SNR of Φ-OTDR simultaneously. Experimental results show that the noise floor is reduced by 11.4 dB, while the target signal is kept. We believe that this proposed method will help DAS find important applications in marine acoustic detection and seismic detection.

Cascaded Generation in Multimode Diode-Pumped Graded-Index Fiber Raman Lasers

We review our recent experimental results on the cascaded Raman conversion of highly multimode laser diode (LD) pump radiation into the first- and higher-order Stokes radiation in multimode graded-index fibers. A linear cavity composed of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) inscribed in the fiber core is formed to provide feedback for the first Stokes order, whereas, for the second order, both a linear cavity consisting of two FBGs and a half-open cavity with one FBG and random distributed feedback (RDFB) via Rayleigh backscattering along the fiber are explored. LDs with different wavelengths (915 and 940 nm) are used for pumping enabling Raman lasing at different wavelengths of the first (950, 954 and 976 nm), second (976, 996 and 1019 nm) and third (1065 nm) Stokes orders. Output power and efficiency, spectral line shapes and widths, beam quality and shapes are compared for different configurations. It is shown that the RDFB cavity provides higher slope efficiency of the second Stokes generation (up to 70% as that for the first Stokes wave) with output power up to ~30 W, limited by the third Stokes generation. The best beam quality parameter of the second Stokes beam is close to the diffraction limit (M2~1.3) in both linear and half-open cavities, whereas the line is narrower (<0.2 nm) and more stable in the case of the linear cavity with two FBGs. However, an optimization of the FBG reflection spectrum used in the half-open cavity allows this linewidth value to be approached. The measured beam profiles show the dip formation in the output pump beam profile, whereas the first and second Stokes beams are Gaussian-shaped and almost unchanged with increasing power. A qualitative explanation of such behavior in connection with the power evolution for the transmitted pump and generated first, second and third Stokes beams is given. The potential for wavelength tuning of the cascaded Raman lasers based on LD-pumped multimode fibers is discussed.

Hybrid WDM free space optical system using CSRZ and Rayleigh backscattering noise mitigation

Hybrid wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) and free space optical (FSO) access networks are getting great attention due to numerous advantages. In this work, hybrid WDM-FSO system is demonstrated for 55 km at capacity of 5 × 10 Gbit/s using compressed spectrum return to zero (CSRZ) WDM-FSO in downstream and nonreturn to zero (NRZ) in upstream for demonstrating transmitter diversity which inturn decrease the interchannel interference. For the suppression of Rayleigh backscattering (RB) interferometric beat noise, bidirectional cyclic multiplexer is employed. Cyclic multiplexer provide λ 1 to λ 5 wavelengths for optical line terminal (OLT) to ONU transmission and λ 2 to λ 6 for ONU to OLT transmission. Insertion losses of each component are considered and in the end, power budget is also calculated. Results revealed that FSO length of 780–1050 m are obtained using various WDM-FSO downstream signals and their power budget, redundant budget, maximum distance, and insertion losses also calculated.

Frequency multiplexed coherent φ-OTDR

We present a comprehensive analysis of a frequency multiplexed phase-measuring φ-OTDR sensor platform. The system uses a train of frequency-shifted pulses to increase the average power injected into the fiber and provide a diversity of uncorrelated Rayleigh backscattering measurements. Through a combination of simulations, numerical analysis, and experimental measurements, we show that this approach not only enables lower noise and mitigates interference fading, but also improves the sensor linearity. We investigate the sensor dependence on the length of the pulse train and characterize the sensor performance as a function of range, demonstrating operation from 1 to 50 km. Despite its relative simplicity, this platform enables state-of-the-art performance, including low crosstalk, high linearity, and a minimum detectable strain of only 0.6 p$$\varepsilon /\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$$ ε / Hz in a 10 km fiber with 10 m spatial resolution and a bandwidth of 5 kHz.

Ultimate Spatial Resolution Realisation in Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry with Equal Frequency Resampling

A method based on equal frequency resampling is proposed to suppress laser nonlinear frequency sweeping for the ultimate spatial resolution in optical frequency domain reflectometry. Estimation inaccuracy of the sweeping frequency distribution caused by the finite sampling rate in the auxiliary interferometer can be efficiently compensated by the equal frequency resampling method. With the sweeping range of 130 nm, a 12.1 µm spatial resolution is experimentally obtained. In addition, the sampling limitation of the auxiliary interferometer-based correction is discussed. With a 200 m optical path delay in the auxiliary interferometer, a 21.3 µm spatial resolution is realised at the 191 m fibre end. By employing the proposed resampling and a drawing tower FBG array to enhance the Rayleigh backscattering, a distributed temperature sensing over a 105 m fibre with a sensing resolution of 1 cm is achieved. The measured temperature uncertainty is limited to ±0.15 °C.