Trade-off between the spatial and the frequency resolutions in measuring the power spectrum of the Brillouin backscattered light in an optical fiber

Recent Advances in Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometry

In the past two decades Brillouin-based sensors have emerged as a newly-developed optical fiber sensing technology for distributed temperature and strain measurements. Among these, the Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer (BOTDR) has attracted more and more research attention, because of its exclusive advantages, including single-end access, simple system architecture, easy implementation and widespread field applications. It is realized mainly by injecting optical pulses into the fiber and detecting the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS), which is linearly related to the change of ambient temperature and axial strain of the sensing fiber. In this paper, the authors provide a review of new progress on performance improvement and applications of BOTDR in the last decade. Firstly, the recent advances in improving the performance of BOTDRs are summarized, such as spatial resolution, signal-to-noise ratio and measurement accuracy, measurement speed, cross sensitivity and other properties. Moreover, novel-type optical fibers bring new characteristics to optic fiber sensors, hence we introduce the different Brillouin sensing features of special fibers, mainly covering the plastic optical fiber, photonic crystal fiber, few-mode fiber and other special fibers. Additionally, we present a brief overview of BOTDR application scenarios in many industrial fields and intelligent perception, including structural health monitoring of large-range infrastructure, geological disaster prewarning and other applications. To conclude, we discuss several challenges and prospects in the future development of BOTDRs.

The Influence of Laser Linewidth on the Brillouin Shift Frequency Accuracy of BOTDR

This paper analyzes the influence of laser linewidth on the measurement accuracy of a frequency-scanning Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer (FS-BOTDR), allowing for both the width of Brillouin gain spectrum and the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the BOTDR system. The measurement accuracy of the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) is theoretically investigated versus the duration of the probe pulse and the linewidth of the laser source, by numerically simulating how a FS-BOTDR works and evaluating the Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) width and the system SNR. The simulation results show that the BFS accuracy is improved as the laser linewidth becomes narrower when the probe pulse width is fixed. We utilize five types of lasers with respective linewidths of 1.05 MHz, 101 kHz, 10.2 kHz, 3.1 kHz, and 98 Hz to compare the BFS measurement accuracy over a ~10 km optical sensing fiber. The experimental results demonstrate that the root-mean-square error (RMSE) of BFS decreases with the laser linewidth narrowing from 1.05 MHz to 3.1 kHz, which is in good agreement with the numerical simulation. However, the RMSE of BFS increases when the laser linewidth is less than 3.1 kHz, which may arise from the coherent Rayleigh noise due to a too narrow laser linewidth. The results can provide a theoretical basis and experimental guidance for choosing the appropriate laser linewidth in BOTDR.

Brillouin Frequency Shift of Fiber Distributed Sensors Extracted from Noisy Signals by Quadratic Fitting

It is a basic task in Brillouin distributed fiber sensors to extract the peak frequency of the scattering spectrum, since the peak frequency shift gives information on the fiber temperature and strain changes. Because of high-level noise, quadratic fitting is often used in the data processing. Formulas of the dependence of the minimum detectable Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and frequency step have been presented in publications, but in different expressions. A detailed deduction of new formulas of BFS variance and its average is given in this paper, showing especially their dependences on the data range used in fitting, including its length and its center respective to the real spectral peak. The theoretical analyses are experimentally verified. It is shown that the center of the data range has a direct impact on the accuracy of the extracted BFS. We propose and demonstrate an iterative fitting method to mitigate such effects and improve the accuracy of BFS measurement. The different expressions of BFS variances presented in previous papers are explained and discussed.

Detecting cm-scale hot spot over 24-km-long single-mode fiber by using differential pulse pair BOTDA based on double-peak spectrum

In distributed Brillouin optical fiber sensor when the length of the perturbation to be detected is much smaller than the spatial resolution that is defined by the pulse width, the measured Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) experiences two or multiple peaks. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a technique using differential pulse pair Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (DPP-BOTDA) based on double-peak BGS to enhance small-scale events detection capability, where two types of single mode fiber (main fiber and secondary fiber) with 116 MHz Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) difference have been used. We have realized detection of a 5-cm hot spot at the far end of 24-km single mode fiber by employing a 50-cm spatial resolution DPP-BOTDA with only 1GS/s sampling rate (corresponding to 10 cm/point). The BFS at the far end of 24-km sensing fiber has been measured with 0.54 MHz standard deviation which corresponds to a 0.5°C temperature accuracy. This technique is simple and cost effective because it is implemented using the similar experimental setup of the standard BOTDA, however, it should be noted that the consecutive small-scale events have to be separated by a minimum length corresponding to the spatial resolution defined by the pulse width difference.

Proposal of Brillouin optical frequency-domain reflectometry (BOFDR)

We demonstrate a Brillouin optical frequency-domain reflectometry (BOFDR) technique, which can measure the strain and/or temperature along an optical fiber with one-end access, by detecting the spontaneous Brillouin scattering from a sinusoidally modulated pump light. Compared to the Brillouin optical frequency-domain analysis (BOFDA), we show that BOFDR measurements are free from the distorting components related to acoustic wave modulation, thus simplifying data processing.

Raman-assisted Brillouin optical time-domain analysis with sub-meter resolution over 100 km

Sub-meter resolution in long-distance Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA) cannot be trivially achieved due to several issues including: resolution-uncertainty trade-offs, self-phase modulation, fiber attenuation, depletion, etc. In this paper we show that combining Raman assistance, differential pulse-width pair (DPP) measurements and a novel numerical de-noising procedure, we could obtain sub-meter resolution Brillouin optical time-domain analysis over a range of 100 km. We successfully demonstrate the detection of a 0.5 meter hot-spot in the position of worst contrast along the fiber.

2 cm spatial-resolution and 2 km range Brillouin optical fiber sensor using a transient differential pulse pair

We report a high-spatial-resolution and long-range distributed temperature sensor through optimizing differential pulse-width pair Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (DPP-BOTDA). In DPP-BOTDA, the differential signal suffers from a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) reduction with respect to the original signals, and for a fixed pulse-width difference the SNR reduction increases with the pulse width. Through reducing the pulse width to a transient regime (near to or less than the phonon lifetime) to decrease the SNR reduction after the differential process, the optimized 8/8.2 ns pulse pair is applied to realize a 2 cm spatial resolution, where a pulse generator with a 150 ps fall-time is used to ensure the effective resolution of DPP-BOTDA. In the experiment, a 2 cm spatial-resolution hot-spot detection with a 2 °C temperature accuracy is demonstrated over a 2 km sensing fiber.

Recent progress in Brillouin scattering based fiber sensors

Brillouin scattering in optical fiber describes the interaction of an electro-magnetic field (photon) with a characteristic density variation of the fiber. When the electric field amplitude of an optical beam (so-called pump wave), and another wave is introduced at the downshifted Brillouin frequency (namely Stokes wave), the beating between the pump and Stokes waves creates a modified density change via the electrostriction effect, resulting in so-called the stimulated Brillouin scattering. The density variation is associated with a mechanical acoustic wave; and it may be affected by local temperature, strain, and vibration which induce changes in the fiber effective refractive index and sound velocity. Through the measurement of the static or dynamic changes in Brillouin frequency along the fiber one can realize a distributed fiber sensor for local temperature, strain and vibration over tens or hundreds of kilometers. This paper reviews the progress on improving sensing performance parameters like spatial resolution, sensing length limitation and simultaneous temperature and strain measurement. These kinds of sensors can be used in civil structural monitoring of pipelines, bridges, dams, and railroads for disaster prevention. Analogous to the static Bragg grating, one can write a moving Brillouin grating in fibers, with the lifetime of the acoustic wave. The length of the Brillouin grating can be controlled by the writing pulses at any position in fibers. Such gratings can be used to measure changes in birefringence, which is an important parameter in fiber communications. Applications for this kind of sensor can be found in aerospace, material processing and fine structures.

High spatial resolution distributed sensing in optical fibers by Brillouin gain-profile tracing

A novel BOTDA technique for distributed sensing of the Brillouin frequency in optical fibers with cm-order spatial resolution is proposed. The technique is based upon a simple modulation scheme, requiring only a single long pump pulse for acoustic excitation, and no subsequent interrogating pulse. Instead, the desired spatial mapping of the Brillouin response is extracted by taking the derivative of the probe signal. As a result, the spatial resolution is limited by the fall-time of the pump modulation, and the phenomena of secondary "echo" signals, typically appearing in BOTDA sensing methods based upon pre-excitation, is mitigated. Experimental demonstration of the detection of a Brillouin frequency variation significantly smaller than the natural Brillouin linewidth, with a 2cm spatial resolution, is presented.

Differential Brillouin gain for improving the temperature accuracy and spatial resolution in a long-distance distributed fiber sensor

We demonstrate a 12 km differential pulse-width pair Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (DPP-BOTDA) using 40 ns and 50 ns pulses with DC-coupled detection. A spatial resolution of 1 m and a narrowband Brillouin gain spectrum of 33 MHz are obtained simultaneously compared with 88 MHz with the use of 10 ns pulses in a conventional BOTDA. The experimental results show that the differential Brillouin gain of a 40/50 ns pulse pair is 7 times stronger than the direct Brillouin gain of BOTDA with the use of a 10 ns pulse, and the temperature uncertainty is 0.25 degrees C compared with 1.8 degrees C for a 10 ns pulse. As the pulse-width difference decreases from 10 ns to 1 ns, corresponding to a spatial resolution from 1 m to 10 cm, the prediction of temperature uncertainty will only increase from 0.25 degrees C to 0.8 degrees C for DPP-BOTDA over a 12 km long single-mode fiber.

Edge technique for direct detection of strain and temperature based on optical time domain reflectometry

A hybrid technique for real-time direct detection of strain and temperature along a single-mode fiber is proposed. The temperature is directly detected from the Raman backscattering in the time domain. To retrieve the strain profile from the Brillouin backscattering, an edge technique is introduced and a response function of the Fabry-Perot interferometer for the Brillouin backscattering is defined for the first time to our knowledge. The outgoing laser and the Brillouin backscattering are measured on different interference orders through different channels of the Fabry-Perot interferometer. A low-resolution reference channel and a high-resolution Brillouin channel are designed to keep both a high measurement sensitivity and a wide dynamic range. The measurement is based on detecting the bandwidth changes and the frequency shifts of the Brillouin backscattering; thus the resulting measurement is insensitive to the power fluctuation of the backscattering and the laser frequency jitter or drift. Neither time-consuming frequency scanning nor heavy data processing is needed, which makes real-time detection possible. The dynamic range of the edge technique can be increased substantially by using a piezoelectric tunable and capacitive-servo-stabilized Fabry-Perot interferometer. We highlight the potential of this technique by numerical simulations. Given that the uncertainty of the temperature measurement is 0.5 degrees C and that the spatial and temporal resolutions are 10 cm and 1 s, the strain uncertainty is less than 20 microepsilon within a 2 km distance when the strain is below 0.4%, and it is not more than 110 microepsilon within a 4 km distance when the strain is below 0.6%.

Stabilization of electro-optic modulator bias voltage drift using a lock-in amplifier and a proportional-integral-derivative controller in a distributed Brillouin sensor system

In a distributed Brillouin sensor system, it is crucial to keep the pulse energy uniform for a constant signal-to-noise ratio. This means that the variable dc leakage (pulse base) for the electro-optic modulator (EOM) must be locked. We examine two different methods of locking the EOM bias voltage and look at the advantages and disadvantages of each locking method. It is found that the two locking methods, one based on a lock-in amplifier and the other using proportional-integral-derivative control, both have applications in which they excel at locking the pulse base.

Dependence of the Brillouin gain spectrum on linear strain distribution for optical time-domain reflectometer-type strain sensors

We theoretically derive the shape of the Brillouin gain spectrum, that is, the Briilouin backscattered-light power spectrum produced in an optical fiber under conditions of a strain distribution that changes linearly with a constant slope. The modeled measurement system is an optical time-domain reflectometer-type strain sensor system. The linear strain distribution is one of the fundamental distributions and is produced in, for example, a beam to which a concentrated load is applied. By analyzing a function that expresses the shape of the derived Brillouin gain spectrum, we show that the strain calculated from the frequency at which the spectrum has a peek value coincide. with that at the center of the effective pulsed light. In addition, the peak value and the full width at half maximum of the Brillouin gain spectrum are both influenced by the strain difference between the two ends of the effective pulse. We investigate this influence in detail and obtain the relationship between strain difference and strain measurement error.

Launched pulse-shape dependence of the power spectrum of the spontaneous brillouin backscattered light in an optical fiber

We theoretically analyze the relationship between the electric field envelope shape of an optical pulse launched into an optical fiber and the power spectrum of the spontaneous Brillouin backscattered light it produces. The electric field envelope is characterized by the pulse width, leading-trailing time, and steepness. The peak power of the launched, pulsed-light power spectrum is proportional to the square of the pulse width regardless of the pulse leading-trailing time and steepness, and the power spectrum broadens in inverse proportion to the pulse width. The peak power of the spontaneous Brillouin backscattered light produced by the launched, pulsed light is proportional to the pulse width when it is above approximately 100 ns and is proportional to the square of the pulse width when it is below approximately 1 ns. The power spectrum of the spontaneous Brillouin backscattered light also broadens rapidly corresponding to the pulse width, when the pulse width falls below approximately 30 ns. As the pulse leading-trailing time is shortened or the pulse leading-trailing part becomes steep, the Brillouin backscattered-light power spectrum broadens greatly, even if the launched pulse width remains constant. Our analysis showed that an optical pulse with a triangular-shaped electric field envelope forms the Brillouin backscattered-light power spectrum with the narrowest profile and consequently gives the minimum error in measuring the peak-power frequency, when the pulse width is below approximately 50 ns. The measurement error with the triangular-shaped pulsed light is 1/square root(2) times smaller than that for a rectangular-shaped pulsed light, when the pulse width falls below several nanoseconds. By contrast, the rectangular-shaped envelope gives the minimum error when the pulse width exceeds approximately 50 ns.