Synthesis of Brillouin frequency shift profiles to compensate non-local effects and Brillouin induced noise in BOTDA sensors

We present a novel technique for Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) sensors that simultaneously compensates non local effects and reduces Brillouin noise. The technique relies on the wavelength modulation of the optical source to modify the Brillouin interaction between probe and pump wa...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Urricelqui Polvorinos, Javier, Sagüés García, Mikel, Loayssa Lara, Alayn
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2014
Country:España
Institution:Universidad Pública de Navarra
Repository:Academica-e. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad Pública de Navarra
OAI Identifier:oai:academica-e.unavarra.es:2454/22702
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2454/22702
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Stimulated Brillouin scattering
Fiber optics sensors
Brillouin optical time domain analysis
Description
Summary:We present a novel technique for Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) sensors that simultaneously compensates non local effects and reduces Brillouin noise. The technique relies on the wavelength modulation of the optical source to modify the Brillouin interaction between probe and pump waves during their propagation. The resulting Brillouin distribution mimics the wavelength modulation, creating a virtual Brillouin frequency shift profile along the sensing fiber. The fundamentals of the technique are first described theoretically and using numerical simulations. Then, proof of concept experiments demonstrate the capabilities of the system to reduce large variations of the pump power resulting from the interaction with high probe powers and to decrease the Brillouin induced noise enhancing the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the system. Furthermore, we show, for the first time to our knowledge, measurements of the Brillouin distribution using an injected optical power higher than the Brillouin threshold of the fiber.