Abstract

Most distributed optical fiber sensors rely on commercially available telecom fibers, which are low-loss, inexpensive, and standardized. In the last few years, significant effort has been made to develop optical fibers optimized for specific sensing applications, with the view of improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or extending the distance over which distributed optical fiber sensors (DOFS) operate. This tutorial reviews the efforts made by the scientific community towards the development of enhanced backscattering fibers and enhanced backreflection fibers, with a focus on DOFS.

10-cm spatial resolution distributed acoustic sensor based on an ultra low-loss enhanced backscattering fiber

Ali Masoudi, Timothy Lee, Martynas Beresna, and Gilberto Brambilla
Opt. Continuum 1(9) 2002-2010 (2022)

152 km-range single-ended distributed acoustic sensor based on inline optical amplification and a micromachined enhanced-backscattering fiber

Ali Masoudi, Martynas Beresna, and Gilberto Brambilla
Opt. Lett. 46(3) 552-555 (2021)

Distributed polymer optical fiber sensors: a review and outlook

Yosuke Mizuno, Antreas Theodosiou, Kyriacos Kalli, Sascha Liehr, Heeyoung Lee, and Kentaro Nakamura
Photon. Res. 9(9) 1719-1733 (2021)

Low-noise distributed acoustic sensing using enhanced backscattering fiber with ultra-low-loss point reflectors

Brandon Redding, Matthew J. Murray, Andrei Donko, Martynas Beresna, Ali Masoudi, and Gilberto Brambilla
Opt. Express 28(10) 14638-14647 (2020)

Distributed temperature-change sensor based on Rayleigh backscattering in an optical fiber

R. Rathod, R. D. Pechstedt, D. A. Jackson, and D. J. Webb
Opt. Lett. 19(8) 593-595 (1994)