Carlos Galindez

Influence of Humidity on the Measurement of Brillouin Frequency Shift

Distributed sensing based on the Brillouin frequency shift is a useful technique to measure temperature along an optical fiber. However, the measurement can be influenced by the humidity on the fiber and its history. Experimental results using three different types of single-mode fibers with 1 km length, at 25degC and 30degC are reported. Depending of the type of fiber, a displacement on Brillouin frequency from 0.4 up to 2.8 MHz due to changes of humidity is obtained.

Speckle characterization in multimode fibers for sensing applications

This paper proposes the characterization of speckle patterns of multimode fibers in view of sensing applications and particularly for detection of vibration or seismic activity. Plastic optical fibers are used in this work due to its excellent flexibility and adaptability to build sensor heads. We are interested in the response to vibration, for which we use a short cylindrical piezoelectric transducer (PZT) vibrating in radial direction. The multimode fiber was coiled as tightly as possible around the mandrel of the PZT and periodic stretching effect was caused by the radial oscillations of the actuator. The PZT is modulated with a frequency generator by applying a sinusoidal signal in the range of 0 to 20 Hz, so the speckle patterns can be time averaged. The fiber extreme is attached to a high speed camera with a plastic adaptor, centering the speckle pattern into the CCD. Maintaining the fiber position, a region of interest is selected to capture the video sequence and it is captured to detect the variations in the speckle pattern. Once having the video sequence, it is processed by averaging the pixel differences between two consecutive frames. This processed sequence is also filtered in order to reduce the high frequency noise component. In this work we report the results of the characterization of 3 types of multimode fibers, with core diameters of 50 μm, 240 μm and 980 μm.

Brillouin frequency shift of standard optical fibers set in water vapor medium

The dependence of the Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) on UV-cured acrylate coating and uncoated fibers for media that have different water vapor concentrations is experimentally investigated. The BFS is proportional to the temperature within the fiber, but it also depends on the water vapor contained in the surroundings of the fiber. A hypothesis based on the efficiency of the heat transfer due to the different humidity concentration in the media is proposed, and the temperature difference that depends on the heat transfer is quantified in standard fibers. A shift of approximately 0.22 MHz for relative humidity change between 60% and 98% at 20 degrees C is measured.

POF vibration sensor based on speckle pattern changes

A method of sensing vibration using detection of changes in the spatial distribution of energy on the speckle pattern in the output multimode optical fiber is presented and demonstrated. The implementation of sensor consists of a small length of fiber which is isolated and sensitive to ambient vibration. The projection of the speckle pattern is directly recorded by a CCD camera at the outlet end of the fiber and processed changes in the intensity distribution. The sensor is simple, inexpensive and can be implemented to measure vibrations in engine, machines or buildings.

Efficient dynamic events discrimination technique for fiber distributed Brillouin sensors

A technique to detect real time variations of temperature or strain in Brillouin based distributed fiber sensors is proposed and is investigated in this paper. The technique is based on anomaly detection methods such as the RX-algorithm. Detection and isolation of dynamic events from the static ones are demonstrated by a proper processing of the Brillouin gain values obtained by using a standard BOTDA system. Results also suggest that better signal to noise ratio, dynamic range and spatial resolution can be obtained. For a pump pulse of 5 ns the spatial resolution is enhanced, (from 0.541 m obtained by direct gain measurement, to 0.418 m obtained with the technique here exposed) since the analysis is concentrated in the variation of the Brillouin gain and not only on the averaging of the signal along the time.

30cm of spatial resolution using pre-excitation pulse BOTDA technique

A pre-excitation pulse technique in Brillouin optical time domain analysis (PP-BOTDA) for enhancement of the spatial resolution is shown. The technique here exposed is based on the pre-excitation of the stimulated Brillouin scattering and the subtraction of the Brillouin scattering due to the intensity dc level present in the optical pulse. A main optical pulse with 3ns of duration followed by a pulse of 40ns and half the intensity of the main one are used for obtaining 30cm of spatial resolution. The spatial range is 3600m on a standard single mode optical fiber.

Temperature sensing in multiple zones based on Brillouin fiber ring laser

A simple system for sensing temperature in multiple zones based on a multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser ring is presented. Optical fiber reels are serially concatenated and divided in zones (one per sensing area). Setting the Brillouin lasing in each spool of fiber generates a characteristic wavelength that depends on the fiber properties and the temperature in the zone. Thus, it is possible to measure temperature independently and accurately through heterodyne detection between two narrow laser signals. The proposed sensor integrates the temperature along the whole spool of fiber in each zone. These real time measurements were successfully checked in our laboratory.

Effect of humidity on optical fiber distributed sensor based on Brillouin scattering

In real sensors, the crosstalk or undesirable crossed sensitivities must be minimized. Distributed Brillouin sensing is a very useful technique to measure fluctuations of temperature along an optical fiber. However, the later measurement can be influenced by the humidity on the fiber; therefore its effect must be minimized. Because the aforementioned, the Brillouin frequency changes with the humidity. Thus, for a given temperature on a distributed fiber sensor such variations have been investigated. The experimental results obtained using three different types of single mode fibers with 1000m length, at 25°C are reported in this paper.

Influence of the refractive index of liquids in the speckle pattern of multimode fibers

The distribution of the intensity of each speckle depends on the relative phases of modes in the multimode fiber, so they are extremely sensitive to external perturbations of the fiber. These perturbations can locally appear in the fiber without disrupting the entire optical assembly. If the refractive index of the outside medium of the fiber is changed, it can cause variations in the speckle pattern at the fiber output. Thus, by changing the refractive index of the outside medium the speckle pattern at the output fiber varies and its influence can be observed. In this paper we demonstrate the influence of the refractive index of liquids in the speckle pattern obtained by a multimode fiber. In order to obtain greater sensitivity of the experimental measurement, the fiber is bent in a U-shape and immersed in a liquid. The core and cladding are 240 microns and 250 microns, respectively. The intensity speckle field is then captured by a CCD camera in digital image format and processed by the computer with a Matlab program. The portion of fiber exposed to the disturbance of the liquid is located 2 meters before the exit of the fiber. The portion of the fiber in contact with the liquid is curved with a radius of 2 mm.

Focal beam position detection in a laser induced breakdown spectroscopy system by using a fiber Bragg grating sensor

Chemical analysis of dangerous materials entails a safety issue for the researchers. Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy offers the possibility to analyze these materials away from them using Stand-Off Set-ups. To optimize the plasma induction, the remote focalization of the laser beam is of paramount importance. A custom Fiber Bragg Grating sensor system able to correct the laser beam focalization errors is proposed and experimentally checked. The optical transducer architecture and the preliminary obtained results are reported in this paper.