We propose a novel approach to generate distributed fiber sensing system based on phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR) and phase generated carrier (PGC) demodulationalgorithm. An unbalanced Michelson interferometer is introduced at the receiving end of the system. The back Rayleigh scattering light from a certain position along the sensing fiber would interfere to generate interference light signal versus time, whose phase carries the sensing information. Phase generated carrier demodulation algorithm is proposed and carried out to recover the phase information. A single frequency vibration event is applied to a certain position along the sensing fiber and we realize to demodulate it correctly. The noise level of the phase sensitive OTDR system is about 3×10 -3 rad/√Hz and a signal to noise ratio about 30.45dB is achieved. The maximum sensing length and the spatial resolution of the Φ-OTDR system are 10km and 6m with pulse repetition rate at 10kHz and 6m fiber delay in MI with interrogating pulse width of 30ns.

We report on a high-resolution static strain sensor developed with distributed feedback (DFB) fiber laser. A reference FBG resonator is used for temperature compensation. Locking another independent fiber laser to the resonator using the Pound-Drever-Hall technique results in a strain power spectral density better than S_ε(f) = (4.6 × 10^-21) ε²/Hz in the frequency range from 1 Hz to 1 kHz, corresponding to a minimum dynamic strain resolution of 67.8 pε/√Hz. This frequency stabilized fiber laser is proposed to interrogate the sensing DFB fiber laser by the beat frequency principle. As a reasonable DFB fiber laser setup is realized, a narrow beat frequency line-width of 3.23 kHz and a high beat frequency stability of 0.036 MHz in 15 minutes are obtained in the laboratory test, corresponding to a minimum static strain resolution of 270 pε. This is the first time that a sub-0.5 nε level for static strain measurement using DFB fiber laser is demonstrated.

An improved phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (φ-OTDR) system with sub-meter spatial resolution is demonstrated. Two Michelson interferometers (MIs) with different path length differences are used in the proposed system. One is 10 m, the other is 9.2 m. Two Rayleigh backscattering phase traces with different spatial resolution are obtained by a phase generated carrier (PGC) algorithm at adjacent times. After using differencing and adaptive 2-D bilateral filtering algorithms, a 0.8-m spatial resolution over 2 km is achieved. Experimental results indicate that the system shows an extraordinary linearity as high as 99.94% with amplitude-modulation and acquires a detection frequency from 5 to 500 Hz.