Static/dynamic strain sensing applications by monitoring the correlation peak from optical wideband chaos.

Abstract

We present a new sensing demodulation approach by monitoring the amplitude changes of correlation peak through using optical wideband chaos. For the static strain sensing, the reflection intensity of optical wideband chaos can be modulated by the strain induced wavelength spacing between the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) device and the sensing grating. Thus, the relative amplitude change (RAC) of correlation peak is mainly determined by the change of chaotic reflection intensity. For the dynamic strain sensing, the reflection intensity of optical wideband chaos can be modulated by the fast fluctuant evanescent wave on a section of no-core fiber (NCF). Thus, the response from correlation peak's RAC is mainly according to the dynamic strain frequency. The experimental measurements show that a high strain sensing sensitivity of 7.04*10-3 RAC/με is achieved within the measurement range of 900 με during the static strain test. While in the dynamic test, the demodulation can detect the vibration frequency of 6 kHz located at 6 km long. This demodulation method can simultaneously achieve static/dynamic sensing and precisely locating the fiber break point with the high accuracy of several centimeters, making it very easy for network maintenance.