Abstract

Sub-meter distributed optical fiber sensing based on Brillouin optical time-domain analysis with differential pulse-width pairs (DPP-BOTDA) is combined with the use of optical pre-amplification and pulse coding. In order to provide significant measurement SNR enhancement and to avoid distortions in the Brillouin gain spectrum due to acoustic-wave pre-excitation, the pulse width and duty cycle of Simplex coding based on return-to-zero pulses are optimized through simulations. In addition, the use of linear optical pre-amplification increases the receiver sensitivity and the overall dynamic range of DPP-BOTDA measurements. Experimental results demonstrate for first time a spatial resolution of similar to 25 cm over a 60 km standard single-mode fiber (equivalent to similar to 240k discrete sensing points) with temperature resolution of 1.2 degrees C and strain resolution of 24 mu epsilon. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America