Distributed Brillouin fiber laser sensor

Abstract

Brillouin fiber sensors can provide distributed strain and temperature measurements over long distances in standard off-the-shelf fiber by measuring the Brillouin frequency shift as a function of position along a fiber. The primary drawback of these systems is their limited sensitivity, which results from the challenge in identifying the Brillouin frequency shift to within a small fraction of the Brillouin linewidth. In this work, we introduce a technique that overcomes this fundamental limitation by establishing a series of lasing modes that experience Brillouin amplification at discrete spatial locations in the test fiber. The linewidth narrowing and high intensity associated with the lasing transition enable precise measurements of this lasing frequency. As an initial demonstration, we present a sensor that simultaneously excites 40 lasing modes in a 400 m fiber, providing a measurement of the strain at 40 discrete locations with a spatial resolution of 4 m. Each sensor exhibits a minimum detectable strain as low as 4 n ε / H z 1 / 2 with a dynamic range of > 5 m ε and a bandwidth of ∼ 10 k H z . As the first demonstration that Brillouin lasing can be used for distributed fiber sensing, this work establishes an approach that could enable ultrahigh strain sensitivity using off-the-shelf fiber.