Open AccessPerformance improvement for long‐range BOTDR sensing system based on high extinction ratio modulator
Author(s) -
Zhang Yixin,
Wu Xuelin,
Ying Zhoufeng,
Zhang Xuping
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
electronics letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.375
H-Index - 146
ISSN - 1350-911X
DOI - 10.1049/el.2014.0909
Subject(s) - extinction ratio , optical time domain reflectometer , optics , materials science , brillouin zone , brillouin scattering , optical modulator , extinction (optical mineralogy) , electro optic modulator , optical fiber , optoelectronics , physics , phase modulation , fiber optic sensor , polarization maintaining optical fiber , wavelength , phase noise
The leakage light of an electro‐optic modulator induced by its finite extinction ratio (ER) may degrade the performance of the Brillouin optical time domain reflectometer (BOTDR) sensing system, especially for long distance measurement. A novel configuration of a modulator based on a synchronous optical switch is presented. Experimental results have shown that the performance of the sensing system can be obviously improved with the proposed high ER modulator. At the end of a 48.5 km sensing fibre, the maximum uncertainty of temperature measurement has been reduced from 5.2 to 0.8°C with a 25 m spatial resolution after making an improvement in the ER from 35 to 65 dB.