Improvement of signal-to-noise capabilities of a distributed temperature sensor using optical preamplification

Abstract

An optical preamplifier system consisting of a 27 dB-gain erbium-doped fibre amplifier, a three-port circulator and a 47 GHz bandwidth in-fibre grating has improved the optical signal-to-noise capabilities of a Brillouin-based fibre-optic distributed temperature sensor by 17 dB. Using this system and operating at 1533 nm, a sensor with a range of 23 km, spatial resolution of 1.8m, measurement time of 9min and temperature resolution of 6K was implemented. The temperature resolution was attributed to contamination of the backscattered spontaneous Brillouin signal by the residual Rayleigh signal after optical filtering.

Measurement Science and Technology (2001) Vol.12 pp.952-957

doi: 10.1088/0957-0233/12/7/336

Click here to request a preprint of this paper. (Please mention the paper number)