APPARATUS FOR OPTICAL SENSING

Embodiments of the invention provide an improved optical fiber distributed acoustic sensor system that makes use of a specially designed optical fiber to improve overall sensitivity of the system, in some embodiments by a factor in excess of 10. This is achieved by inserting into the fiber weak broadband reflectors periodically along the fiber. The reflectors reflect only a small proportion of the light from the DAS incident thereon back along the fiber, typically in the region of 0.001% to 0.1%, but preferably around 0.01% reflectivity per reflector. In addition, to allow for temperate compensation to ensure that the same reflectivity is obtained if the temperature changes, the reflection bandwidth is relatively broadband i.e. in the region of +/- 3nm from the nominal laser wavelength. In some embodiments the reflectors are formed from a series of fiber Bragg gratings, each with a different center reflecting frequency, the reflecting frequencies and bandwidths of the gratings being selected to provide the broadband reflection. In other embodiments a chirped grating may also be used to provide the same effect. In preferred embodiments, the reflectors are spaced at half the gauge length i.e. the desired spatial resolution of the optical fiber DAS.