Abstract

Up to now, complex (phase and intensity) measurements in Brillouin Optical Time-Domain Analysis (BOTDA) systems required complex phase modulation methods and high-bandwidth (multi-GHz) detection. In this work, we propose a novel technique that is able to retrieve simultaneously both gain/loss and phase characteristics of the Brillouin interaction by just introducing a Sagnac Interferometer (SI) on a standard BOTDA sensing scheme. The technique is described analytically and demonstrated experimentally With this technique, a reliability increase is produced since redundant measurements can be performed.