Time and frequency pump-probe multiplexing to enhance the signal response of Brillouin optical time-domain analyzers

A technique to enhance the response and performance of Brillouin distributed fiber sensors is proposed and experimentally validated. The method consists in creating a multi-frequency pump pulse interacting with a matching multi-frequency continuous-wave probe. To avoid nonlinear cross-interaction be...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Soto, Marcelo A., Ricchiuti, Amelia Lavinia, Zhang, Liang, Thevenaz, Luc, Barrera Vilar, David|||0000-0002-1700-6842, Sales Maicas, Salvador|||0000-0001-9457-976X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2014
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV)
Repositorio:RiuNet. Repositorio Institucional de la Universitat Politécnica de Valéncia
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:riunet.upv.es:10251/57593
Acceso en línea:https://riunet.upv.es/handle/10251/57593
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Fiber optics
Fiber optics sensors
Scattering stimulated Brillouin
Nonlinear optics fibers
TEORIA DE LA SEÑAL Y COMUNICACIONES
Descripción
Sumario:A technique to enhance the response and performance of Brillouin distributed fiber sensors is proposed and experimentally validated. The method consists in creating a multi-frequency pump pulse interacting with a matching multi-frequency continuous-wave probe. To avoid nonlinear cross-interaction between spectral lines, the method requires that the distinct pump pulse components and temporal traces reaching the photodetector are subject to wavelength-selective delaying. This way the total pump and probe powers launched into the fiber can be incrementally boosted beyond the thresholds imposed by nonlinear effects. As a consequence of the multiplied pump-probe Brillouin interactions occurring along the fiber, the sensor response can be enhanced in exact proportion to the number of spectral components. The method is experimentally validated in a 50 km-long distributed optical fiber sensor augmented to 3 pump-probe spectral pairs, demonstrating a signal-to-noise ratio enhancement of 4.8 dB.