Rapid-aging civil infrastructures have become social issues worldwide. Developed countries have faced difficulties e.g. cost increase in infrastructure maintenance, shortage of highly-skilled human resources. Thereafter, infrastructures have been inspected infrequently e.g. every 1~10 year. 3D mapping powered by light detection and ranging (LiDAR) platforms has recently been brought to public attention. In infrastructure maintenance, LiDAR having high-precision and long-measurement range is expected to enhance inspection frequencies and lower the maintenance cost. Time-of-flight (ToF) approach is generally utilized for long-range measurement, however it suffers from low depth resolution. Although development of dual-comb interferometry enabled high-precision ToF rangefinders, sophisticated stabilization is required for two lasers. On the other hand, frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) LiDAR can perform ranging with a single laser. However, its measurement range is limited by its receiver bandwidth. Although FMCW LiDAR with low-speed analog-to-digital converters can conduct long-distance ranging by reducing its wavelength-sweeping rate, the measurement refresh rate is sacrificed. In this article, we propose a long-range FMCW LiDAR employing wavelength-swept optical frequency comb which overcomes ranging limitation caused by its receiver bandwidth. In addition, the spectrum of such optical frequency comb is apodised to circumvent its inherent ranging ambiguity. We have performed proof-of-concept experiments using the proposed LiDAR. With optical fibers for emulating beam propagation, we have succeeded in ranging corresponding to 1,605-m free-space propagation with a 10-MHz FMCW receiver. Our proposal will make an important contribution to infrastructure maintenance.
A novel Erbium-doped fiber laser sensor based on a sigma-type cavity configuration using a double-pass cascadedchirped long-period fiber grating (C-CLPG) as a reflective sensor section is proposed for a real-time displacement sensor, in which the double-pass C-CLPG is provided by returning the transmitted light of the C-CLPG with a Faraday rotator mirror (FRM) in the σ-branch of the cavity. The σ-branch with FRM-reflection realizes a compensation effect for the polarization fluctuations in the sensor section, a stable oscillation output during the sensing operation, and a suitable arrangement for remote sensing. In the experiment, we have successfully demonstrated a real-time displacement measurement based on bending characteristics of the C-CLPG, taking advantage of laser-type sensors.
In this article, we review various fiber diagnostic methods based on distributed sensing such as optical timedomain reflectometry, optical frequency-domain reflectometry etc., fiber characterization schemes employing digital coherent receivers and various interferometric approaches. We also go through multiple industrialized fiber diagnostic instruments provided by leading manufactures in the installation and maintenance market.
A novel method for distributionally evaluating the effective refractive index differences, Δneff, in multimode optical fibers is presented based on the Brillouin spectrum analysis. The proposed method is successfully demonstrated in GeO2-doped step-index 2-mode fibers, for evaluating Δneff between LP01 and LP11 modes, and the method could be straightforwardly expanded to fibers containing higher-order modes, by using a mode demultiplexer supporting the higher-order mode. To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first report of distributional measurements of the effective refractive index differences in multimode optical fibers.
We present a novel Brillouin time domain analysis configuration for monitoring parallel fiber networks. By employing branch length manipulation, the new probe pulse arrangement improves the system dynamic range compared with a previously reported approach that uses a single pair of pump and probe pulses. This technique is promising in parallel fiber sensing that enhances the system reliability.
Recent progress on novel long-range coherent optical frequency domain reflectometry is described along with its
applications to diagnosing problems with optical fiber cables. The measurement range of a conventional C-OFDR is
limited to the coherence length of the laser used as a light source, since the phase noise of the laser degrades the
sharpness of the beat spectrum. We have developed phase-noise-compensated optical frequency domain reflectometry
(PNC-OFDR) to overcome this limit, by introducing a novel phase-noise compensation technique, and achieved a very
high-resolution measurement over the fiber link length. We describe the principle of PNC-OFDR and recent related
developments, and discuss its use in diagnosing issues with fiber networks.
KEYWORDS: Frequency division multiplexing, Reflectometry, Spatial resolution, Modulation, High dynamic range imaging, Optical amplifiers, Photodetectors, Polarization, Signal detection, Modulators
We present coherent OTDR employing frequency division multiplexing and frequency demultiplexing by software
processing. We improved a 5-dB dynamic range against conventional coherent OTDR, and achieved a 100-dB dynamic
range with 218 measurements at a 1-km spatial resolution.
We show that the noise of long range optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) after compensating for the phase
noise of the optical source results from environmental acoustic perturbation rather than the compensation process. If both
the auxiliary and measurement interferometers are insulated against acoustic noise, the phase noise compensation
scheme works almost ideally even over a 20-km range, with at least eight-fold concatenation. Although the spatial
resolution achieved by phase-noise compensated OFDR (PNC-OFDR) is influenced by the environmental acoustic
perturbation, a resolution of ~10 cm was achieved over 20 km in a normal laboratory environment by insulating the
auxiliary interferometer. This approach can be used for mid to long range network diagnosis with a narrow spatial
resolution, which is unachievable with other technologies.
Highly sensitive reflectometry over 20 km with a sub-meter spatial resolution based on phase noise compensated optical
frequency domain reflectometry and the concatenative reference method is proposed and demonstrated experimentally.
A fiber laser is used as a light source to extend the measurement range although the distance remains limited to the laser
coherence length because of the existence of laser phase noise. To reduce the influence of laser phase noise, the
measurement signal is compensated using reference signals generated from a single auxiliary interferometer supported
by a newly developed compensation process. By using the proposed technique, the measurement range is extended to 20
km with a sub-meter resolution and a sensitivity (relative to the Rayleigh backscattering level) of about -30 dB, which is
nearly impossible to realize with the OTDR technique. The entire measurement time is 20 ms and the processing time is
20 s for each section.
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