Distributed analysis of forward stimulated Brillouin scattering for acoustic impedance sensing by extraction of a 2nd-order local spectrum

Distributed fiber sensors based on forward stimulated Brillouin scattering(F-SBS)have attracted special attention because of their capability to detect the acoustic impedance of liquid material outside fiber.However,the reported results were based on the extraction of a 1st-order local spectrum,causing the sensing distance to be restricted by pump depletion.Here,a novel post-processing technique was proposed for distributed acoustic impedance sensing by extracting the 2nd-order local spectrum,which is beneficial for improving the sensing signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)significantly,since its pulse energy penetrates into the fiber more deeply.As a proof-of-concept,distributed acoustic impedance sensing along~1630 m fiber under moderate spatial resolution of~20 m was demonstrated.