We present an enhanced performance Brillouin optical time-domain analysis sensor that uses dual probes waves with optical frequency modulation and cyclic coding. The frequency modulation serves to increase the probe power that can be injected in the fiber before the onset of non-local effects and noise generated by spontaneous Brillouin scattering. This leads to higher detected signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), which is further increased by the coding gain. The enhanced SNR translates to extended range for the sensor, with experiments demonstrating 1-m spatial resolution over a 164 km fiber loop with a 3-MHz Brillouin frequency shift measurement precision at the worst contrast position. In addition, we introduce a study of the power limits that can be injected in the fiber with cyclic coding before the appearance of distortions in the decoded signal.
KEYWORDS: Temperature metrology, Modulation, Signal processing, Raman spectroscopy, Signal detection, Signal to noise ratio, Sensors, Signal attenuation, Optical filters, Spatial resolution
We demonstrate a simple technique to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in Brillouin optical time-domain analysis sensors by the addition of gain and loss processes. The technique is based on the shift of the pump pulse optical frequency in a double-sideband probe system, so that the gain and loss processes take place at different frequencies. In this manner, the loss and the gain do not cancel each other out, and it makes possible to take advantage of both informations at the same time, obtaining an improvement of 3 dB on the SNR. Furthermore, the technique does not need an optical filtering, so that larger improvement on SNR and a simplification of the setup are obtained. The method is experimentally demonstrated in a 101 km fiber spool, obtaining a measurement uncertainty of 2.6 MHz (2σ) at the worst-contrast position for 2 m spatial resolution. This leads, to the best of our knowledge, to the highest figure-of-merit in a BOTDA without using coding or raman amplification.
In this communication, a novel compact fibre Bragg grating-based thermometer for on-line temperature monitoring of drill bits is reported. Our proposed technique can potentially be used to optimize any drilling process, requiring the use of small drill bits, through direct temperature measurement at the drill bit instead of relying on indirect parameters (speed of rotation, applied force) in order to avoid an overheating as it is currently done nowadays.
KEYWORDS: Sensors, Fiber optics sensors, Distance measurement, Current controlled current source, 3D metrology, Signal to noise ratio, Time metrology, Binary data, Matrices, Optical fibers
For the first time, a colour cyclic coding (CCC) is theoretically and experimentally demonstrated for Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) distributed sensors. Compared to traditional intensity-modulated cyclic codes, the code presents an additional gain of √2 while keeping the same number of sequences as for a colour coding. A comparison with a standard BOTDA sensor is realized and validates the theoretical coding gain.
In this paper, we propose a new Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA) set-up that combines simultaneous Brillouin gain/loss measurements with colour coding. This technique gives the advantage that the pump power can greatly be increased, compared to other coding schemes, thus increasing the sensing range. A measurement over a 200 km fiber-loop is performed, with a 3 meter spatial resolution and an accuracy of ± 3 MHz (2σ) at the end of the sensing fiber. To the best of our knowledge, this is the best result obtained with a Brillouin sensor without Raman amplification.
The possibility to customize Simplex coding for long range Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis is demonstrated by
“colouring” the sequences in the frequency domain. The coding gain is identical to the traditional intensity-modulated
Simplex code, though with much simplified series of sequences. The frequency-hopping pulses in return-to-zero
intensity-modulated format are generated with a Direct-Digital Synthesizer. The proof-of-concept is experimentally
demonstrated with measurements over a 50 km range (100 km fibre-loop) and a 2 meter spatial resolution.
A simple technique to generate an optical frequency comb, based on a conventional dual-drive Mach-Zehnder intensity
modulator, has been used as optical source for a high accuracy distance measurement in an interferometric set-up. The
modulator has been driven by a direct-digital synthesizer that is able to deliver a pure ramp in frequency between 13
GHz and 14 GHz. We have obtained about 15 modes, corresponding to a spectral span of 200 GHz. This optical signal,
launched in a Michelson interferometric set-up, allowed performing absolute distance measurement by sweeping the
radio-frequency of the direct digital synthesizer. Measurements have been compared to a standard, which was a mode-locked
femtosecond laser along with a counting interferometer. Absolute distance measurements over a range of 1 to 24
meters gave an accuracy of about ± 10 microns, with a repeatability of ± 5 microns, corresponding to a sub-ppm absolute
distance measurement.
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