Mode-walk-off interferometry for position-resolved optical fiber sensing
- Creators
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Costa, Luis
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Zhan, Zhongwen
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Marandi, Alireza
Abstract
Simultaneously sensing and resolving the position of measurands along an optical fiber enables numerous opportunities, especially for application in environments where massive sensor deployment is not feasible. Despite significant progress in techniques based on round-trip time-of-flight measurements, the need for bidirectional propagation imposes fundamental barriers to their deployment in fiber communication links containing non-reciprocal elements. In this work, we break this barrier by introducing a position-resolved sensing technique based on the interference of two weakly-coupled non-degenerate modes of an optical fiber, as they walk-off through each other. We use this mode-walk-off interferometry to experimentally measure and localize physical changes to the fiber under test (axial strain and temperature) without the typical requirement of round-trip time-of-flight measurements. The unidirectional propagation requirement of this method makes it compatible with fiber links incorporating non-reciprocal elements, uncovering a path for multiple sensing applications, including ultra-long range distributed sensing in amplified space-division-multiplexed telecommunication links.
Additional Information
This work was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore foundation, grant 9500. The authors thank Optiphase/Jeff Bush for providing the piezoelectric fiber stretcher used in the strain experiments. Author Contributions A.M., L.C., and Z.Z. conceived the idea. A.M. and Z.Z. supervised the project. L.C. devised and executed the experiments and data processing. All authors contributed to the writing and discussion of the results. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Data availability All data in the main text or supplemental materials is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Supplemental document. See Supplemental Document for supporting content.Attached Files
Submitted - 2203.16783.pdf
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- Distributed optical fiber sensing using forward propagation of multiple modes
- Eprint ID
- 114515
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20220428-212250450
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
- 9500
- Created
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2022-04-29Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2023-06-02Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Seismological Laboratory, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)