Discriminative measurement of strain and temperature using Brillouin scattering and fluorescence in erbium-doped optical fiber

Abstract

A novel discriminative strain and temperature measurement is demonstrated using Brillouin scattering and fluorescence in an erbium-doped fiber (EDF). The fluorescence intensity ratio, calculated using the fluorescence intensities (or powers) at 1530 nm and at 1565 nm, is linearly dependent on temperature with a proportionality constant of 7.5 × 10^–4/°C, but is not influenced by strain. By combining the strain- and temperature-dependences of Brillouin frequency shift in EDFs, the applied strain of 0.4% and the temperature of 20.0°C were successfully discriminated with measurement errors of 0.03% and 0.6°C, respectively.