Optomechanical time-domain reflectometry

Optical fibres constitute an exceptional sensing platform. However, standard fibres present an inherent sensing challenge: they confine light to an inner core. Consequently, distributed fibre sensors are restricted to the measurement of conditions that prevail within the core. This work presents distributed analysis of media outside unmodified, standard fibre. Measurements are based on stimulated scattering by guided acoustic modes, which allow us to listen where we cannot look. The protocol overcomes a major difficulty: guided acoustic waves induce forward scattering, which cannot be mapped using time-of-flight. The solution relies on mapping the Rayleigh backscatter contributions of two optical tones, which are coupled by the acoustic wave. Analysis is demonstrated over 3 km of fibre with 100 m resolution. Measurements distinguish between air, ethanol and water outside the cladding, and between air and water outside polyimide-coated fibres. The results establish a new sensor configuration: optomechanical time-domain reflectometry, with several potential applications.Distributed fibre sensors are so far restricted to the monitoring of conditions within the core. Here, Bashan et al. introduce distributed optomechanical mapping of outside media, where light cannot reach. The sensor resolves forward stimulated Brillouin scattering through Rayleigh back-scatter.

[1]  M. Scharrer,et al.  Quantitative broadband chemical sensing in air-suspended solid-core fibers , 2007, 2008 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and 2008 Conference on Quantum Electronics and Laser Science.

[2]  L. Mollenauer,et al.  Method for facile and accurate measurement of optical fiber dispersion maps. , 1996 .

[3]  Eyal Preter,et al.  Monitoring the Evaporation of Fluids from Fiber-Optic Micro-Cell Cavities , 2013, Sensors.

[4]  K. Sooley,et al.  Tapered fiber Mach–Zehnder interferometer for simultaneous measurement of refractive index and temperature , 2009 .

[5]  Luc Thévenaz,et al.  Modeling and evaluating the performance of Brillouin distributed optical fiber sensors. , 2013, Optics express.

[6]  Xiaoyi Bao,et al.  Distributed Vibration Sensor Based on Coherent Detection of Phase-OTDR , 2010, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[7]  Reginald K. Lee,et al.  Highly sensitive fiber Bragg grating refractive index sensors , 2005 .

[8]  X. Bao,et al.  Differential pulse-width pair BOTDA for high spatial resolution sensing. , 2008, Optics express.

[9]  S. James,et al.  Optical fibre long-period grating sensors: characteristics and application , 2003 .

[10]  Yosuke Mizuno,et al.  Characterization of depolarized GAWBS for optomechanical sensing of liquids outside standard fibers , 2017, 2017 25th Optical Fiber Sensors Conference (OFS).

[11]  Massimo L. Filograno,et al.  Coherent Noise Reduction in High Visibility Phase-Sensitive Optical Time Domain Reflectometer for Distributed Sensing of Ultrasonic Waves , 2013, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[12]  Thibaut Sylvestre,et al.  Brillouin spectroscopy of optical microfibers and nanofibers , 2017 .

[13]  Birgit Stiller,et al.  Cascaded forward Brillouin scattering to all Stokes orders , 2016, 1607.04740.

[14]  David L. Kaplan,et al.  A new route for silk , 2008 .

[15]  Faramarz Farahi,et al.  Theory of forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in dual-mode single-core fibers , 1991 .

[16]  Yongkang Dong,et al.  2 cm spatial-resolution and 2 km range Brillouin optical fiber sensor using a transient differential pulse pair. , 2012, Applied optics.

[17]  J. N. Ross,et al.  Distributed optical fibre Raman temperature sensor using a semiconductor light source and detector , 1985 .

[18]  Thibaut Sylvestre,et al.  Guided acoustic wave Brillouin scattering in photonic crystal fibers. , 2007, Optics letters.

[19]  J. R. Koehler,et al.  Resolving the mystery of milliwatt-threshold opto-mechanical self-oscillation in dual-nanoweb fiber , 2016 .

[20]  Luc Thévenaz,et al.  Distributed measurement of chromatic dispersion by four-wave mixing and Brillouin optical-time-domain analysis. , 2003, Optics letters.

[21]  G. Talli,et al.  Rayleigh Noise Reduction in 10-Gb/s DWDM-PONs by Wavelength Detuning and Phase-Modulation-Induced Spectral Broadening , 2007, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[22]  Amnon Yariv,et al.  Degradation of modulation and noise characteristics of semiconductor lasers after propagation in optical fiber due to a phase shift induced by stimulated Brillouin scattering , 1999 .

[23]  Seonghoon Kim,et al.  Step‐Index Optical Fiber Made of Biocompatible Hydrogels , 2015, Advanced materials.

[24]  J. R. Koehler,et al.  Optomechanical nonlinearity in dual-nanoweb structure suspended inside capillary fiber. , 2012, Physical review letters.

[25]  Luc Thévenaz,et al.  Spider silk: a novel optical fibre for biochemical sensing , 2015, International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors.

[26]  Shelby,et al.  Guided acoustic-wave Brillouin scattering. , 1985, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[27]  Yosef London,et al.  Electro-opto-mechanical radio-frequency oscillator driven by guided acoustic waves in standard single-mode fiber , 2017, 1902.05367.

[28]  Thibaut Sylvestre,et al.  Brillouin light scattering from surface acoustic waves in a subwavelength-diameter optical fibre , 2014, Nature Communications.

[29]  Giuliano Scarcelli,et al.  Bioabsorbable polymer optical waveguides for deep-tissue photomedicine , 2016, Nature Communications.

[30]  Benjamin J. Eggleton,et al.  Ultra-sensitive photonic crystal fiber refractive index sensor , 2009, 2009 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics and 2009 Conference on Quantum electronics and Laser Science Conference.

[31]  Chuen-Lin Tien,et al.  Hydrogen sensor based on side-polished fiber Bragg gratings coated with thin palladium film , 2008, International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors.

[32]  Meng Pang,et al.  All-optical bit storage in a fibre laser by optomechanically bound states of solitons , 2016 .

[33]  Sung-Hoon Kim,et al.  Controllable in-line UV sensor using a side-polished fiber coupler with photofunctional polymer , 2003 .

[34]  T. Horiguchi,et al.  A technique to measure distributed strain in optical fibers , 1990, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[35]  Y. Rao,et al.  Laser-micromachined Fabry-Perot optical fiber tip sensor for high-resolution temperature-independent measurement of refractive index. , 2008, Optics express.

[36]  P. Rakich,et al.  Guided-wave Brillouin scattering in air , 2016, 1607.04664.

[37]  L. Thévenaz,et al.  Simple distributed fiber sensor based on Brillouin gain spectrum analysis. , 1996, Optics letters.

[38]  R. M. Derosier,et al.  Performance of a WDM network based on stimulated Brillouin scattering , 1989, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[39]  Marcelo A. Soto,et al.  Frequency-domain technique to measure the inertial response of forward stimulated Brillouin scattering for acoustic impedance sensing , 2017, 2017 25th Optical Fiber Sensors Conference (OFS).

[40]  J. R. Koehler,et al.  Effects of squeezed-film damping on the optomechanical nonlinearity in dual-nanoweb fiber , 2013 .

[41]  Faramarz Farahi,et al.  Experimental observation of forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in dual-mode single-core fibre , 1990 .

[42]  M. D. Rourke,et al.  Optical time domain reflectometer. , 1977, Applied optics.

[43]  A. V. Nazarkin,et al.  Tightly trapped acoustic phonons in photonic crystal fibres as highly nonlinear artificial Raman oscillators , 2009 .

[44]  A. de Rossi,et al.  Probing molecular absorption under slow-light propagation using a photonic crystal waveguide. , 2012, Optics letters.

[45]  C. Cordeiro,et al.  Brillouin scattering self-cancellation , 2016, Nature Communications.

[46]  Moshe Tur,et al.  Vector analysis of stimulated Brillouin scattering amplification in standard single-mode fibers. , 2008, Optics express.

[47]  A. Bjarklev,et al.  Gas sensing using air-guiding photonic bandgap fibers , 2004, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, 2004. (CLEO)..

[48]  Leonard George Cohen,et al.  A distributed fiber optic sensor based on cladding fluorescence , 1990 .

[49]  Daniel J Gauthier,et al.  Fsbs Resonances Observed in a Standard Highly Nonlinear Fiber References and Links , 2022 .

[50]  Kentaro Nakamura,et al.  Experimental study on depolarized GAWBS spectrum for optomechanical sensing of liquids outside standard fibers. , 2017, Optics express.

[51]  Eyal Preter,et al.  Monitoring and analysis of pendant droplets evaporation using bare and monolayer-coated optical fiber facets , 2014 .

[52]  A. Zadok,et al.  Optomechanical sensing of liquids outside standard fibers using forward stimulated Brillouin scattering , 2016 .

[53]  J. R. Koehler,et al.  CW-pumped single-pass frequency comb generation by resonant optomechanical nonlinearity in dual-nanoweb fiber , 2014 .

[54]  P. Rakich,et al.  Forward Brillouin scattering in hollow-core photonic bandgap fibers , 2016 .

[55]  C. Poulton,et al.  Formal selection rules for Brillouin scattering in integrated waveguides and structured fibers. , 2014, Optics express.

[56]  P. Healey,et al.  Fading in heterodyne OTDR , 1984 .