Single-end simultaneous temperature and strain sensing techniques based on Brillouin optical time domain reflectometry in few-mode fibers

Recently there is a growing interest in developing few-mode fiber (FMF) based distributed sensors, which can attain higher spatial resolution and sensitivity compared with the conventional single-mode approaches. However, current techniques require two lightwaves injected into both ends of FMF, resulting in their complicated setup and high cost, which causes a big issue for geotechnical and petroleum applications. In this paper, we present a single-end FMF-based distributed sensing system that allows simultaneous temperature and strain measurement by Brillouin optical time-domain reflectometry (BOTDR) and heterodyne detection. Theoretical analysis and experimental assessment of multi-parameter discriminative measurement techniques applied to distributed FMF sensors are presented. Experimental results confirm that FM-BOTDR has similar performance with two-end methods such as FM-BOTDA, but with simpler setup and lower cost. The temperature-induced expansion strain (TIES) in response to different modes is discussed as well. Furthermore, we optimized the FMF design by exploiting modal profile and doping concentration, which indicates up to fivefold enhancement in measurement accuracy. This novel distributed FM-sensing system endows with good sensitivity characteristics and can prevent catastrophic failure in many applications.