Simultaneous strain and temperature measurements with polarization-maintaining fibers and their error analysis by use of a distributed Brillouin loss system

Simultaneous temperature and strain measurement with a distributed Brillouin loss system is proposed by use of the parameters Brillouin frequency, power, and bandwidth, for PANDA, bow-tie, and tiger polarization-maintaining fibers for the first time to our knowledge. The expressions for simultaneous temperature and strain sensing and the maximum errors and rms values of temperature and strain measurements are derived with three combinations of the parameters: (1) power and Brillouin frequency, (2) bandwidth and Brillouin frequency, and (3) bandwidth and Brillouin power. Our experiments demonstrate that simultaneous temperature and strain sensing at 20-cm spatial resolution for Brillouin frequency combined with bandwidth the strain/temperature resolutions are 39 microepsilon/2 degrees C (PANDA), 126 microepsilon/3 degrees C (bow tie), and 598 microepsilon/16 degrees C (tiger); for the Brillouin frequency combined with power the strain/temperature resolutions are 153 microepsilon/8 degrees C (PANDA) and 237 microepsilon/4 degrees C (bow tie); and for the bandwidth combined with power the strain/temperature resolutions are 135 microepsilon/38 degrees C (PANDA) and 195 microepsilon/38 degrees C (bow tie).     

Temperature dependence of Brillouin frequency, power, and bandwidth in panda, bow-tie, and tiger polarization-maintaining fibers

We report a study of the temperature dependence of the Brillouin gain and loss for three different kinds of commercial polarization-maintaining fibers for the first time to our knowledge. The Brillouin frequency differences between the fast and slow axes are independent of the temperature, varying between 2.9 and 4.3 MHz. Using 2-ns pulses (equivalent to a spatial resolution of 20 cm), we find that the temperature coefficients for the relative Brillouin power at a wavelength of 1310 nm are 0.26%/degrees C (panda fiber), 0.23%/degrees C (bow-tie fiber), and 0.04%/degrees C (tiger fiber); the temperature coefficients for the Brillouin frequency are 1.37 MHz/degrees C (panda), 1.66 MHz/degrees C (tiger), and 2.30 MHz/degrees C (bow-tie). The temperature coefficients for the Brillouin gain bandwidth are 0.15 MHz/degrees C (panda), 0.20 MHz/degrees C (bow-tie), and 0.22 MHz/degrees C (tiger).     

Characteristics of Guided Acoustic Wave Brillouin Scattering in Polarization Maintaining Fibers

Characteristics of guided acoustic wave Brillouin scattering in polarization maintaining fibers are investigated theoretically and experimentally. Spectra of polarized and depolarized scattering are measured for two different types of polarization maintaining fibers: the PANDA (polarization maintaining and absorption reducing) fibers and the elliptical-jacket fibers. Calculated results are in agreement with the experimental ones in the low frequency region.     

Temperature and strain dependence of the power level and frequency of spontaneous Brillouin scattering in optical fibers

The strain dependence of the optical power of Brillouin scattering in optical fibers has been measured for the first time to our knowledge. Together with measurements of the dependence of Brillouin power on temperature and the variation of Brillouin frequency with temperature and strain, we demonstrate, for what we believe to be the first time, the feasibility of a simultaneous temperature and strain sensor based on spontaneous Brillouin scattering.     

Brillouin gain spectrum characterization in Ge-doped large-mode-area fibers

The dependence of Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) characteristics, including the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) and the BGS bandwidth, on germanium concentration in large-mode-area Ge-doped passive fibers is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The simulation results show that the BFS is inversely proportional to GeO₂ concentration, and the BGS bandwidth initially increases with the augment of GeO₂ concentration, and then decreases. The BGSs of four fibers with core diameters of 10 μm and 20 μm for different GeO₂ concentrations are compared experimentally. Experimental results demonstrate that with the same core diameter, the variations of BFS and BGS bandwidths with GeO₂ concentration accord with the simulation results. Additionally, the BGS characteristics of three large-mode-area passive fibers with diameters of 10 μm, 25 μm, and 30 μm are measured, which confirm that the increasing of the fiber diameters will cause the BGS bandwidth to broaden. We believe that these results can provide valuable references for modulating the high-power narrow-linewidth fiber lasers and Brillouin fiber amplifiers.     

25 GHz bandwidth Brillouin slow light in optical fibers

Broadband slow light is demonstrated by using stimulated Brillouin scattering in optical fibers based on a double Brillouin pump, the peaks of which are spectrally separated by twice the Brillouin frequency. The loss spectrum generated by one of the pump waves is fully compensated by the gain spectrum of the other one, which permits the enlargement of the bandwidth to 25 GHz and a variable time delay of up to 10.9 ps with 37 ps pulses.     

布里渊动态光栅原理及其在光纤传感中的应用

自从2007年布里渊动态光栅被首次提出用于实现光存储以来,该技术得到了国际上的广泛关注和研究.布里渊动态光栅本质上是由相干声波场激发的折射率光栅,一般情况下两束抽运光(频率差等于光纤的布里渊频移)以相同的偏振态从光纤两端注入到光纤中,通过受激布里渊散射效应激发出相干声波场,即形成布里渊动态光栅.光纤布里渊动态光栅因具有全光产生、参数灵活可控的优点,已被广泛研究应用于光纤传感、光纤特性表征、光存储、全光信号处理、微波光子学和高精度光谱分析等.本文分析布里渊动态光栅产生和探测原理,重点探讨在高性能分布式光纤传感上的应用,这些应用包括高灵敏度温度和应变分布式传感、温度和应变同时解调、分布式横向压力传感、分布式静压力(气压或液压)传感、高空间分辨率分布式传感和高精度光谱分析.     

Brillouin characterization of holey optical fibers

We report the results of detailed measurements on the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS), gain bandwidth, and gain coefficients of several small-core holey optical fibers (HFs) of both uniform and axially varying structural characteristics and compare these with measurements on more conventional fibers. Our measurements show that the BFS of HFs is first-order proportional to the modal index for light propagating along the fiber and is thus extremely sensitive to its precise structural parameters. Our results highlight the possibility of using distributed Brillouin scattering measurements to perform nondestructive structural characterization of HFs, and the possibility of producing Brillouin-suppressed HFs using controlled structural variation along the fiber length.     

光纤移频分布式布里渊光纤传感技术

提出了一种利用布里渊光纤环形腔移频技术实现分布式光纤布里渊传感的方法.该方法基于布里渊光时域分析法原理,将一束单纵模运转激光器输出的激光分为两束|一束光入射布里渊光纤环形腔中产生窄线宽的受激布里渊散射光作为斯托克斯光,另一束光经过低频相位调制后作为泵浦光|斯托克斯光和泵浦光分别相向入射进入传感光纤,通过测量布里渊谱得到光纤温度或应变.利用该方法可将十几GHz的微波频率转化为兆赫信号频率进行探测处理,仅需一台激光器,因此系统结构简单、成本低,还可减小激光器频率波动对测量准确度的影响.实验验证了该方法的可行性.     

Tensile strain dependence of the Brillouin gain spectrum in carbon/polyimide coated fibers

The strain dependence of Brillouin gain spectrum in two novel carbon/polyimide coated fibers (CPCFs) is studied, for what we believe to be the first time, by numerical simulation and experiment. The strain dependence of the Brillouin frequency shift for the two CPCFs maintained linear relation with the elongation up to 4.26% and 4.0%, respectively. The effects of strain on the elastic modulus, the core refractive index, and density are determined, which have been used to simulate the strain dependence of the frequency shift, linewidth, and gain coefficient for the two CPCFs. The simulated and measured results are well matched.     

Distributed strain measurement with millimeter-order spatial resolution based on Brillouin optical correlation domain analysis

Distributed strain sensing with millimeter-order spatial resolution is demonstrated in optical fibers based on Brillouin optical correlation domain analysis. A novel beat lock-in detection scheme is introduced to suppress background noises coming from the reflection of Brillouin pump waves. The Brillouin frequency shifts of 3 mm fiber sections are successfully measured with a theoretical spatial resolution of 1.6 mm.     

Operation of Brillouin dynamic grating in single-mode optical fibers

The first (to our knowledge) observation of Brillouin dynamic grating in conventional single-mode fibers is reported, and the characterization is demonstrated with respect to the external parameters for the grating generation. When a 100 m single-mode fiber is used, a reflectance of 8% with a spectral bandwidth as low as 2.4 MHz is achieved, which is less than 10% of ordinary Brillouin gain bandwidth.     

Potential of Brillouin scattering in polymer optical fiber for strain-insensitive high-accuracy temperature sensing

We investigated the dependences of Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) on strain and temperature in a perfluorinated graded-index polymer optical fiber (PFGI-POF) at 1.55 μm wavelength. They showed negative dependences with coefficients of -121.8 MHz/% and -4.09 MHz/K, respectively, which are -0.2 and -3.5 times as large as those in silica fibers. These unique BFS dependences indicate that the Brillouin scattering in PFGI-POFs has a big potential for strain-insensitive high-accuracy temperature sensing.     

Narrow spectral response of a Brillouin amplifier

We investigate the spectral response of a Brillouin amplifier in the frequency regime within the stimulated-Brillouin-scattering (SBS) bandwidth. This is done by amplitude modulating the pump with a low frequency; therefore, unlike in previous studies, the spectrum of the modulated pump is, in all cases, smaller than the SBS bandwidth. We show both theoretically and experimentally that, unlike phase modulation, amplitude modulation increases the Brillouin amplifier gain and that this effect has a very narrow bandwidth. Only modulation frequencies that are lower than a certain cutoff frequency increase the gain. This cutoff frequency can be arbitrarily small.     

Sweep-free brillouin optical time domain analysis using two individual laser sources

We propose a sweep-free measurement technique for distributed Brillouin frequency shift in optical fibers applicable to distributed strain/temperature monitoring systems, using two sets of pump-probe lights generated by two individual laser sources. This technique utilizes the Brillouin gain ratio measured at both the upper and lower side slopes of two different Brillouin spectra induced by two pump lights with different wavelengths. The proposed method offers high-speed measurement due to the combination of the frequency-sweep-free operation and the polarization-insensitive measurement scheme without polarization scramblers. A measurement accuracy of 17.3 ??? with a spatial resolution of 5m over 2.6 km sensing length and a capability of kHz sampling rate are experimentally demonstrated.     

光子晶体光纤中去极化型声波导布里渊散射频移和散射效率研究

利用矢量有限元法,数值模拟了不同结构参数下光子晶体光纤中空气孔填充率与去极化型声波导布里渊散射频移的关系,以及布里渊散射频移与布里渊散射效率的关系。研究结果表明,空气孔填充率的增大会导致扭转径向模式的去极化型声波导布里渊散射频移下移。空气孔节距或纤芯直径一定时,高阶模式的频移对空气孔填充率的变化更为敏感。扭转径向模式的去极化型布里渊散射效率都随布里渊散射频移的增大而增大。     

Rayleigh scattering-assisted narrow linewidth Brillouin lasing in cascaded fiber

We report a single frequency lasing phenomenon with a narrow linewidth of ～3 kHz in cascaded fiber that is composed of three types of low-loss communication fibers. The Rayleigh scattering of the Brillouin Stokes light created in the middle fiber section along both directions is enhanced by the other two fiber sections. When the Brillouin gain of the middle fiber exceeds the effective loss of the Brillouin stokes light in a roundtrip, a narrow linewidth lasing is observed on the top of the Brillouin spectrum line of the middle fiber. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first report on Rayleigh scattering-assisted Brillouin lasing with single frequency and narrow linewidth in cascaded low-loss communication fibers.     

布里渊散射光纤传感器的交叉敏感问题

基于布里渊散射的全分布式光纤传感器的布里渊频移同时受应变和温度的影响,无法由单一的布里渊频移解析应变或温度的信息,这种交叉敏感问题制约了传感器的实用化。介绍了目前解决交叉敏感问题的主要方法及工作原理。研究了大有效面积非零色散位移光纤(LEAF)的布里渊散射谱与应变和温度的关系,实验发现布里渊谱具有三个布里渊峰,三个峰的布里渊频移与应变和温度成线性关系,第一个峰和第三个峰的布里渊峰峰值功率的差值与温度无关,但与应变成线性关系。最后基于实验结果提出了一种解决交叉敏感问题的方案,获得了大约130με的应变测量精度和8℃的温度测量精度。     

光纤移频分布式布里渊光纤传感技术

提出了一种利用布里渊光纤环形腔移频技术实现分布式光纤布里渊传感的方法.该方法基于布里渊光时域分析法原理,将一束单纵模运转激光器输出的激光分为两束;一束光入射布里渊光纤环形腔中产生窄线宽的受激布里渊散射光作为斯托克斯光,另一束光经过低频相位调制后作为泵浦光;斯托克斯光和泵浦光分别相向入射进入传感光纤,通过测量布里渊谱得到...     

Simultaneous temperature and strain measurement with combined spontaneous Raman and Brillouin scattering

We report on a novel method for simultaneous distributed measurement of temperature and strain based on spatially resolving both spontaneous Raman and Brillouin backscattered anti-Stokes signals. The magnitude of the intensity of the anti-Stokes Raman signal permits the determination of the temperature. The Brillouin frequency shift is dependent on both the temperature and the strain of the fiber; once the temperature has been determined from the Raman signal, the strain can then be computed from the frequency measurement of the Brillouin signal.