Superfluorescent fiber source achieving multisignal power equalization in distributed fiber Bragg grating sensing

Abstract

In order to achieve multisignal power equalization in a quasidistributed fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensing system, an erbium-doped fiber (EDF) superfluorescent source with high flatness and broadband spectrum is presented using a three-stage double-pump configuration. The spectral protrusions in the vicinity of 1532 and 1570 nm are flattened, which is achieved by designing a gain flattening filter with a long-period grating. The result shows that the flatness of the output spectrum covering the C and L band, from 1526.52 to 1607.87 nm, is less than 0.76 dBm. The 3 dB bandwidth is 75.68 nm, and the output power of 13.11 mW is achieved in the C and L band. By using the fiber amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) source in FBG sensing system for decreasing multisignals peak power variation, the standard deviation of multisignals peak power is decreased to 1.00 dBm. In a multiplexed FBG sensing system, the high flattening fiber ASE source is beneficial to long-distance transmission, amplification, recognition, and demodulation of FBG sensing signals.