Distributed vibration sensor with a lasing phase-sensitive OTDR

Opt Express. 2022 Oct 24;30(22):40243-40250. doi: 10.1364/OE.476182.

Abstract

The authors experimentally demonstrate the operation of a lasing phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR) based on random feedback from a sensing fiber. Here, the full output of the laser provides the sensing signal, in contrast to the small backscattered signal measured in a conventional OTDR. In this proof-of-principle demonstration, the laser operates as a distributed vibration sensor with signal-to-noise ratio of 23-dB and 1.37-m spatial resolution.