Dengwang Zhou

High-Spatial-Resolution Fast BOTDA for Dynamic Strain Measurement Based on Differential Double-Pulse and Second-Order Sideband of Modulation

We demonstrate a high-spatial-resolution fast Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) for distributed dynamic strain measurement based on differential double-pulse and second-order sideband of modulation. The frequency-agility probe wave is obtained from the second-order sideband of the modulated light by using the microwave signal from a wideband arbitrary waveform generator (AWG), which reduces the bandwidth requirement of the AWG by half to ~ 5.5 GHz. The differential double-pulse scheme is proposed to improve the spatial resolution while keeping the capability of dynamic measurement. In experiment, a spatial resolution of 20 cm is achieved by using a 52/50 ns differential double-pulse, and the distributed vibration measurement is demonstrated over a 50-m Panda polarization-maintaining fiber observing the vibration frequency of up to 50 Hz. With only five averages, the standard deviation of the strain accuracy is measured to be 14 με.

Distributed measurement of dynamic strain based on multi-slope assisted fast BOTDA.

We propose and demonstrate a dynamic Brillouin optical fiber sensing based on the multi-slope assisted fast Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (F-BOTDA), which enables the measurement of a large strain with real-time data processing. The multi-slope assisted F-BOTDA is realized based on the double-slope demodulation and frequency-agile modulation, which significantly increases the measurement range compared with the single- or double- slope assisted F-BOTDA, while maintaining the advantage of fast data processing and being suitable for real-time on-line monitoring. A maximum strain variation up to 5000με is measured in a 32-m fiber with a spatial resolution of ~1m and a sampling rate of 1kHz. The frequency of the strain is 12.8Hz, which is limited by the rotation rate of the motor used to load the force on the fiber. Furthermore, the influence of the frequency difference between two adjacent probe tones on the measurement error is studied theoretically and experimentally for optimization. For a Brillouin gain spectrum with a 78-MHz width, the optimum frequency difference is ~40MHz. The measurement error of Brillouin frequency shift is less than 3MHz over the whole measurement range (241MHz).

Slope-assisted BOTDA based on vector SBS and frequency-agile technique for wide-strain-range dynamic measurements

We present a slope-assisted BOTDA system based on the vector stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) and frequency-agile technique (FAT) for the wide-strain-range dynamic measurement. A dimensionless coefficient K defined as the ratio of Brillouin phase-shift to gain is employed to demodulate the strain of the fiber, and it is immune to the power fluctuation of pump pulse and has a linear relation of the frequency detuning for the continuous pump and Stokes waves. For a 30ns-square pump pulse, the available frequency span of the K spectrum can reach up to 200MHz, which is larger than fourfold of 48MHz-linewidth of Brillouin gain spectrum. For a single-slope assisted BOTDA, dynamic strain measurement with the maximum strain of 2467.4με and the vibration frequency components of 10.44Hz and 20.94Hz is obtained. For a multi-slope-assisted BOTDA, dynamic measurement with the strain variation up to 5372.9με and the vibration frequency components of 5.58Hz and 11.14Hz is achieved by using FAT to extend the strain range.

Bend-insensitive distributed sensing in singlemode-multimode-singlemode optical fiber structure by using Brillouin optical time-domain analysis.

We propose a bend-insensitive distributed Brillouin optical fiber sensing by using a singlemode-multimode-singlemode optical fiber structure for the first time to the best of our knowledge. The sensing fiber is a graded-index multimode fiber (GI-MMF) sandwiched by two standard single-mode fibers (SMFs) with central-alignment splicing at the interface between GI-MMF and SMF to excite the fundamental mode in GI-MMF. The sensing system can resist a minimal bend radius of 1.25mm while maintain the measurement performance, with which the measured coefficients of strain and temperature are 421.6MHz/% and 0.826MHz/°C, respectively. We also demonstrate that the higher-order modes excited in GI-MMF can be easily influenced by bending, so that exciting the fundamental mode is essential for bend-insensitive distributed sensing.

Temperature-compensated distributed hydrostatic pressure sensor with a thin-diameter polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber based on Brillouin dynamic gratings.

A temperature-compensated distributed hydrostatic pressure sensor based on Brillouin dynamic gratings (BDGs) is proposed and demonstrated experimentally for the first time, to the best of our knowledge. The principle is to measure the hydrostatic pressure induced birefringence changes through exciting and probing the BDGs in a thin-diameter pure silica polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber. The temperature cross-talk to the hydrostatic pressure sensing can be compensated through measuring the temperature-induced Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) changes using Brillouin optical time-domain analysis. A distributed measurement of hydrostatic pressure is demonstrated experimentally using a 4-m sensing fiber, which has a high sensitivity, with a maximum measurement error less than 0.03 MPa at a 20-cm spatial resolution.

Single-shot BOTDA based on an optical chirp chain probe wave for distributed ultrafast measurement

Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) requires frequency mapping of the Brillouin spectrum to obtain environmental information (e.g., temperature or strain) over the length of the sensing fiber, with the finite frequency-sweeping time-limiting applications to only static or slowly varying strain or temperature environments. To solve this problem, we propose the use of an optical chirp chain probe wave to remove the requirement of frequency sweeping for the Brillouin spectrum, which enables distributed ultrafast strain measurement with a single pump pulse. The optical chirp chain is generated using a frequency-agile technique via a fast-frequency-changing microwave, which covers a larger frequency range around the Stokes frequency relative to the pump wave, so that a distributed Brillouin gain spectrum along the fiber is realized. Dynamic strain measurements for periodic mechanical vibration, mechanical shock, and a switch event are demonstrated at sampling rates of 25 kHz, 2.5 MHz and 6.25 MHz, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of distributed Brillouin strain sensing with a wide-dynamic range at a sampling rate of up to the MHz level.Sensors: Lighting the way to low-cost, ultrafast sensorsScientists have developed an inexpensive and ultrafast sensor that could be used in a range of applications from monitoring geo-engineering to the structural integrity of large infrastructure. Compared with conventional electrical sensing, optical fiber sensors are much smaller and cheaper, immune to external electromagnetic interference and can offer millions of sensing points simultaneously. However, processing the information provided by optical fibers can be time-consuming, limiting their applications. Now, a team of researchers from China and Canada, led by Yongkang Dong from Harbin Institute of Technology in China, has developed an innovative technique that generates a probe wave comprising short optical chirps that can be quickly demodulated by injecting a single-shot pump pulse into the fiber. The work paves the way for ultrafast sensors for use in applications from the infrastructure to geophysical research.

Dynamic Distributed Brillouin Optical Fiber Sensing Based on Dual-Modulation by Combining Single Frequency Modulation and Frequency-Agility Modulation

Dynamic Brillouin optical fiber sensors based on fast scanning of Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) are one of the most promising techniques to measure dynamic strains, where an ∼11-GHz bandwidth arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) or a vector microwave generator is essential for frequency agility. A dynamic Brillouin optical fiber sensor based on dual-modulation is proposed here, which aims to realize dynamic sensing via a low-bandwidth AWG. In this protocol, the scanning of BGS is implemented by the combination of a single-frequency modulation and a frequency-agility modulation. The frequency of the single-frequency modulation is slightly lower than the Brillouin frequency shift of the fiber under test so that the tuning range of the frequency-agility modulation is required to cover only several-hundred MHz for the scanning of the BGS, which significantly reduces the bandwidth requirement for the AWG. In experiment, an 11.8-Hz strain is measured with a 30-m fiber, where the spatial resolution and the sampling rate are 1 m and 200 Hz, respectively. Furthermore, by tracking the damping vibration of the optical fiber, its resonant frequency is measured with a sampling rate of 100 Hz.

Phase-shifted Brillouin dynamic gratings using single pump phase-modulation: proof of concept

Two novel phase-shifted Brillouin dynamic gratings (PS-BDGs) are proposed using single pump phase-modulation (SPPM) in a polarization maintaining fiber (PMF) for the first time to our knowledge. Firstly, based on the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), a transient PS-BDG with a 3-dB bandwidth of 354MHz is written by a 2-ns pump1 pulse and a 100-ps pump2 pulse, where the phase of pump1 pulse is shifted with π from its middle point through phase modulation. Then, with a high repetition rate of 250MHz for both pump pulses, an enhanced PS-BDG with a deep notch depth is obtained and its notch frequency can be easily tuned by changing the phase shift. We demonstrate a proof-of-concept experiment of the transient PS-BDG and show the notch frequency changing by tuning the phase shift. The proposed PS-BDGs have important potential applications in microwave photonics, all-optical signal processing and RoF (radio-over-fiber) networks.

1200°C high-temperature distributed optical fiber sensing using Brillouin optical time domain analysis

An up to 1100°C and 1200°C high-temperature distributed Brillouin sensing based on a GeO2-doped single mode fiber (SMF) and a pure-silica photonics crystal fiber (PCF) are demonstrated, respectively. We found that the BFS dependence on temperature of SMF and PCF agrees well with an exponential function instead of a linear function, which is mainly attributed by the change of the acoustic velocity in a silica fiber. A Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) hopping is observed in both kinds of fiber between 800°C-900°C in the first annealing process and after that the BFS exhibits the stability and repeatability with a measurement accuracy as high as ±1.42°C for SMF and ±2.6°C for PCF, respectively. The BFS hopping is a highly temperature-dependent behavior, which means that a high-temperature (> 800°C) would accelerate the process of BFS hopping to reach a stable state and after BFS hopping, both SMF and PCF shows good repeatability from 1000°C to 1100°C and 1000°C to 1200°C without annealing. The process of coating burning of silica fiber not only introduces a loss induced by micro-bending but also imposes a compressive stress on the bare fiber, which contributes to an additional BFS variation at the temperature period of coating burning (272°C-564°C).

1200°C high-temperature distributed Brillouin optical fiber sensing based on photonics crystal fiber

We demonstrate an up to 1200°C high-temperature distributed Brillouin sensing based on a pure-silica photonics crystal fiber. A Brillouin frequency shift (BFS) hopping is observed between 800°C-900°C for the first annealing process and after that the BFS exhibits the stability and repeatability with a measurement accuracy as high as ±2 °C . The BFS dependence on temperature in the range of room temperature to 1200°C agrees well with an exponential function instead of a linear function, which is mainly attributed by the change of the acoustic velocity in a silica fiber.