Brillouin optical time domain collider for fast dynamic sensing

Opt Express. 2020 Feb 3;28(3):3965-3974. doi: 10.1364/OE.385248.

Abstract

The dynamic sampling rate of Brillouin optical time domain analysis (BOTDA) is limited by fiber length. For breaking through this limit, a Brillouin optical time domain collider (BOTDC) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In this BOTDC, by employing frequency-hopping pump and probe waves, sensing information-crosstalk between adjacent pump pulses is avoided even though the pump pulse interval is shorter than the round-trip time of flight in the fiber. In the experiment, periodic mechanical vibrations with a 19.75 Hz fundamental frequency and a 39.49 Hz harmonic frequency are measured by a 10-frequency BOTDC with a sampling rate of 49 kHz which is 10 times higher than that in the BOTDA.