An integral temperature sensor based on Brillouin laser ring that is feed by a Fourier Domain mode-locking (FDML)
laser is here proposed. The source FDML laser ring emits at 1532 nm within a range of 5 nm. The working wavelength is
given by tuning the offset voltage applied to a Fabry-Perot tunable filter (FFP-TF). In the present work, the FDML laser
linewidth is set at 0.136 nm. This linewidth allows a more efficient Brillouin response in the optical fiber without
increasing the Brillouin threshold. The FDML laser linewidth is controlled by setting the amplitude modulation of the
drive signal offset applied on the FFP-TF.
Chemical analysis of dangerous materials entails a safety issue for the researchers. Laser Induced
Breakdown Spectroscopy offers the possibility to analyze these materials away from them using Stand-Off Set-ups. To optimize the plasma induction, the remote focalization of the laser beam is of paramount
importance. A custom Fiber Bragg Grating sensor system able to correct the laser beam focalization
errors is proposed and experimentally checked. The optical transducer architecture and the preliminary
obtained results are reported in this paper.
A method of sensing vibration using detection of changes in the spatial distribution of energy on the speckle pattern in
the output multimode optical fiber is presented and demonstrated. The implementation of sensor consists of a small
length of fiber which is isolated and sensitive to ambient vibration. The projection of the speckle pattern is directly
recorded by a CCD camera at the outlet end of the fiber and processed changes in the intensity distribution. The sensor is
simple, inexpensive and can be implemented to measure vibrations in engine, machines or buildings.
This paper proposes the characterization of speckle patterns of multimode fibers in view of sensing applications and
particularly for detection of vibration or seismic activity. Plastic optical fibers are used in this work due to its excellent
flexibility and adaptability to build sensor heads. We are interested in the response to vibration, for which we use a short
cylindrical piezoelectric transducer (PZT) vibrating in radial direction. The multimode fiber was coiled as tightly as
possible around the mandrel of the PZT and periodic stretching effect was caused by the radial oscillations of the actuator.
The PZT is modulated with a frequency generator by applying a sinusoidal signal in the range of 0 to 20 Hz, so the
speckle patterns can be time averaged. The fiber extreme is attached to a high speed camera with a plastic adaptor,
centering the speckle pattern into the CCD. Maintaining the fiber position, a region of interest is selected to capture the
video sequence and it is captured to detect the variations in the speckle pattern. Once having the video sequence, it is
processed by averaging the pixel differences between two consecutive frames. This processed sequence is also filtered in
order to reduce the high frequency noise component. In this work we report the results of the characterization of 3 types
of multimode fibers, with core diameters of 50 μm, 240 μm and 980 μm.
The distribution of the intensity of each speckle depends on the relative phases of modes in the multimode fiber, so they
are extremely sensitive to external perturbations of the fiber. These perturbations can locally appear in the fiber without
disrupting the entire optical assembly. If the refractive index of the outside medium of the fiber is changed, it can cause
variations in the speckle pattern at the fiber output. Thus, by changing the refractive index of the outside medium the
speckle pattern at the output fiber varies and its influence can be observed. In this paper we demonstrate the influence of
the refractive index of liquids in the speckle pattern obtained by a multimode fiber. In order to obtain greater sensitivity
of the experimental measurement, the fiber is bent in a U-shape and immersed in a liquid. The core and cladding are 240
microns and 250 microns, respectively. The intensity speckle field is then captured by a CCD camera in digital image
format and processed by the computer with a Matlab program. The portion of fiber exposed to the disturbance of the
liquid is located 2 meters before the exit of the fiber. The portion of the fiber in contact with the liquid is curved with a
radius of 2 mm.
A temperature and strain optical fiber transducer and its optimal design are presented. The hybrid structure is composed
of two Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG) in a fused taper. Using the same phase mask one of the FBG is written outside of the
taper, and the other one in the middle of the taper, in the area with constant diameter. The taper diameter and the
structure length play a key role on the transducer behaviour. Useful results to optimize the transducer structure design,
from a theoretical and experimental investigation, are reported in this paper.
A hybrid Erbium-Brillouin fiber laser sensor to measure the temperature along 22 km fiber is proposed and
experimentally demonstrated. A multi-line laser oscillation is induced by the Brillouin gain of different concatenated
transducer fiber sections placed in the ring cavity. Integral temperature measurements of each fiber section are obtained
through each laser line. This sensor can be used to monitor the temperature of off-shore wind energy power cables.
A pre-excitation pulse technique in Brillouin optical time domain analysis (PP-BOTDA) for enhancement of the spatial
resolution is shown. The technique here exposed is based on the pre-excitation of the stimulated Brillouin scattering and
the subtraction of the Brillouin scattering due to the intensity dc level present in the optical pulse. A main optical pulse
with 3ns of duration followed by a pulse of 40ns and half the intensity of the main one are used for obtaining 30cm of
spatial resolution. The spatial range is 3600m on a standard single mode optical fiber.
An experimental setup and a method to obtain the Brillouin scattering spectrum (BSS) out of optical fibers are proposed.
The setup is described and experimentally validated by developing the measurement of the Brillouin spectral distribution
of a birefringent microstructuted optical fiber. The setup here proposed is based on a Brillouin ring cavity that uses the
fiber under test as the active medium. The measurements are obtained in base band by beating the Stokes wave with a
reference wave that is taken from the optical pump. The data can be obtained with high resolution frequency.
Welding processes are one of the most widely spread industrial activities, and their quality control is an important area of
research. The presence of residual traces from the protective antioxidant coating, is a problematic issue since it causes a
significant reduction in the welding seam strength. In this work, a solution based on a Laser Induced Breakdown
Spectroscopy (LIBS) setup and a Support Vector Machines (SVMs) classifier to detect and discriminate antioxidant
coating residues in the welding area without destroying the sample before the welding procedure is proposed. This
system could be an interesting and fast tool to detect aluminium impurities.
An optical fibre transducer able to work in high temperatures environments is experimentally demonstrated in the
laboratory. It is based on a permanent Long period gratings (PLPG) written using a thermo-mechanical technique. The
fabrication technique, the experimental works, their results and the conclusions are presented and discussed in this paper.
A simple system for sensing temperature in multiple zones based on a multi-wavelength Brillouin fiber laser ring is
presented. Optical fiber reels are serially concatenated and divided in zones (one per sensing area). Setting the Brillouin
lasing in each spool of fiber generates a characteristic wavelength that depends on the fiber properties and the
temperature in the zone. Thus, it is possible to measure temperature independently and accurately through heterodyne
detection between two narrow laser signals. The proposed sensor integrates the temperature along the whole spool of
fiber in each zone. These real time measurements were successfully checked in our laboratory.
The influence of the frequency chirp inherent to the generation of a pump pulse by a Mach-Zehnder intensity modulator
is presented in the context of a distributed Brillouin sensor configuration. This frequency chirp depends on the pulse
shape and its impact is related to the relative importance of the rising and falling edges with respect to the total pulse
width. This results in a biased evaluation of the Brillouin frequency in regions where an abrupt change of this Brillouin
frequency is observed.
A refractometric sensor that uses the transition region of a U-bent Plastic Optical Fiber (POF) when it is polished
laterally is presented. By polishing a lateral segment of the fiber, a part of the plastic optical fiber core is removed and an
elliptical surface is formed on the bend. It is found that that the polishing with an angle equals to the critical angle of a
straight optical fiber the sensitivity of this transducer structure is enhanced. Then, the incident light is totally reflected
and the transition losses decrease locally. In addition, the sensitivity increases compared to the polishing in the region of
bending losses. The proposed transducer is successfully checked with experimental measurements and different kinds of
liquids. Potential applications are suggested.
In real sensors, the crosstalk or undesirable crossed sensitivities must be minimized. Distributed Brillouin sensing is a
very useful technique to measure fluctuations of temperature along an optical fiber. However, the later measurement can
be influenced by the humidity on the fiber; therefore its effect must be minimized. Because the aforementioned, the
Brillouin frequency changes with the humidity. Thus, for a given temperature on a distributed fiber sensor such
variations have been investigated. The experimental results obtained using three different types of single mode fibers
with 1000m length, at 25°C are reported in this paper.
The effective index, fundamental mode width, numerical aperture are some important parameters of a fibre. The
behaviour of these parameters for a Modified Total Internal Reflection (MTIR) Photonic Crystal Fibre (PCF) is studied
when strain is applied. We chose a range of normalized frequency (&Lgr;/&lgr;) and a range of d/&Lgr; and we analyzed the
behaviour for different values of strain. The sensibilities of the studied parameter are obtained in the chosen range.
Finally, the region of maximum influence of the strain is observed.
The effects of temperature on high concentration Erbium-doped fibers are characterized using parameters of
transcendental equation model. The intrinsic parameters (intrinsic saturation power, excited-state lifetime and linear
absorption coefficient) of six Erbium doped and Erbium codoped with Lanthanum fibers have been measured for
different temperatures. The temperature dependence of intrinsic parameter has been compared respect to Erbium
concentration and Lanthanum-Erbium concentration ratio.
Distributed fiber sensing based on Brillouin gain scattering (BGS) principle is a useful way to develop devices capable to
measure temperature and/or strain in optical fibers. In these distributed sensors, spatial resolution is a topic of special
interest in the distributed fiber sensing field. The influence of the probe-pulse shape in the interaction between the pulsed
light and the continuous wave laser in a pump-probe system. This study has the purpose of improving the spatial
resolution of the measurement without losing stability in the BGS is presented. Also it is showed how the backscattering
Brillouin gain is affected by inducing variations on the final value of the BGS intensity. Theoretical analysis of the probe
pulse in the Brillouin shift and intensity values using triangular, sinusoidal and saw tooth shapes around the phonon
lifetime (~10ns) are presented; and also considerations and conclusions are explained.
Distributed fiber sensing based on Brillouin gain scattering (BGS) principle is a useful way to develop devices capable to measure temperature or/and strain in optical fibers. New effects or technologies that could achieve a larger distance and/or a better spatial resolution are a topic of special interest in this fiber sensing area. The influence of the probe-pulse shape in the interaction between the pulsed light and the continuous wave laser in a pump-probe system is presented. The purpose of this study is to improve the spatial resolution of the measurement without losing stability in the BGS. Also it is showed how the backscattering Brillouin gain is affected by inducing variations on the final value of the BGS intensity; this effect is illustrated by using an experimental set up based on the Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA). Theoretical analysis of the probe pulse in the Brillouin shift and intensity value using triangular, sinc and saw tooth shapes around the medium phonon life time (~10ns) are presented; as well as the experimental results and possible applications are explained.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.