Nonlinearity-Compensation-Free Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry Based on Electrically-Controlled Optical Frequency Sweep

A nonlinearity-compensation-free optical frequency domain reflectometry(OFDR)scheme is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on the electrically-controlled optical frequency sweep.In the proposed scheme,the linear frequency sweep light is generated by propagating an ultra-narrow-linewidth continuous-wave(CW)light through an electro-optic frequency shifter which consists of a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator(DPMZM)and an electronic 90°hybrid,where the electro-optic frequency shifter is driven by a linear frequency modulated signal generated by a direct digital synthesizer(DDS).Experimental results show that the spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio(SNR)of the proposed OFDR scheme without the nonlinear phase compensation are comparable to those of OFDR employing a commercial tunable laser source(TLS),an auxiliary interferometer,and a software-based nonlinear phase compensation method.The proposed OFDR scheme is helpful to reduce the complexity of the optical structure and eliminate the difficulty of developing the nonlinear phase compensation algorithm.

Non-uniform strain measurement along a f iber Bragg grating using optical frequency domain reflectometry

A novel method of measuring non-uniform strain along a fiber Bragg grating(FBG) using optical frequency domain reflectometry(OFDR) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. This method can overcome the problems of traditional non-uniform strain measurement methods for FBGs, i.e., the likelihood of chirping and multiple peaking in the spectrum when FBG is subjected to inhomogeneous strain fields. Wavelength interrogation is realized by OFDR with a narrow-line-width tunable laser as the optical source. When non-uniform strain distributions along areas adjacent to structural damage are measured by this method, good agreement is obtained between measurements and theoretical simulation results.

OFDR Based Distributed Temperature Sensor Using the Three-Channel Simultaneous Radio-Frequency Lock-ln Technique

Weak signal detection for single-mode fiber-optic distributed temperature sensor （DTS） is a key technology to achieve better performance. A hybrid technique combining the incoherent optical frequency domain reflectometry （IOFDR） and the three-channel simultaneous radio-frequency （RF） lock-in amplifier （LIA） is presented to improve the signal-to-noise ratio （SNR） of the measured spontaneous Raman backscattered light. The field programmable gate array （FPGA） based RF-LIA is designed with a novel and simple structure. The measurement frequency range is achieved from 1 kHz to 100 MHz. Experimental results show that the backscattered light signal of picowatt level can be detected with high SNR. With a 2.5kin single-mode fiber, a 1064nm laser source, and the measurement time of 500 s, this sensing system can reach a spatial resolution of 0.93 m and a temperature resolution of about 0.2℃.

Suppression of modulation-induced polarization error in spliceless open-loop fiber optic gyroscope [Invited]

The suppression of polarization cross talk in lead zirconate titanate phase modulators as a key error source has been challenging for open-loop fiber optic gyroscopes(FOGs).We developed a polarization-diversity optical frequency domain reflectometry(OFDR)to measure the distributed modulation polarization error in the modulator.The error contributes 8×10^(−6) rad to FOG’s bias instability.Using a UV-fabricated in-fiberλ/4 wave plate and polarization-mode converter with fiber taper technology,the modulation error has been suppressed by 15 dB in assembled FOGs.This approach reduced error with temperature from 25°/h to 0.7°/h,meeting the requirements of control-level gyroscopes with bias errors less than 1°/h.