The performance of unipolar unicolor coded Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) is evaluated based on both Simplex and Golay codes. Four major detrimental factors that limit the system performance, including decoded-gain trace distortion, coding pulse power non-uniformity, polarization pulling and higher-order non-local effects, are thoroughly investigated. Through theoretical analysis and an experimental validations, solutions and optimal design conditions for unipolar unicolor coded BOTDA are clearly established. First, a logarithmic normalization approach is proposed to resolve the linear accumulated Brillouin amplification without distortion. Then it is found out that Simplex codes are more robust to pulse power non-uniformity compared to Golay codes; whilst the use of a polarization scrambler must be preferred in comparison to a polarization switch to mitigate uncompensated fading induced by polarization pulling in the decoded traces. These optimal conditions enables the sensing performance only limited by higher-order non-local effects. To secure systematic errors below 1.3 MHz on the Brillouin frequency estimation, while simultaneously reaching the maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), a mathematical model is established to trade-off the key parameters in the design, i.e., the single-pulse Brillouin amplification, code length and probe power. It turns out that the optimal SNR performance depends in inverse proportion on the value of maximum single-pulse Brillouin amplification, which is ultimately determined by the spatial resolution. The analysis here presented is expected to serve as a quantitative guideline to design a distortion-free coded BOTDA system operating at maximum SNR.

Phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (Ф-OTDR) attracts much attention due to its capability of telling the type and position of an intrusion simultaneously. In recent decades, coherent Ф-OTDR has been demonstrated to realize long-distance detection. For coherent Ф-OTDR, there are three typical demodulation schemes in the reported studies. However, they still cannot realize real-time monitoring to satisfy practical demands. A simple and effective demodulation method based on self-mixing has been put forward to demodulate the beat signal in coherent Ф-OTDR. It not only saves a local electrical oscillator and frequency locked loop, but also demodulates the beat signal without residual frequency. Several vibrations with different frequency were separately applied at the same location of a 42.5 km fiber. The spatial resolution of 10 m and frequency response range from 8 Hz to 980 Hz have been achieved. The precise location with signal-to-noise ratio of 21.4 dB and broadband measurement demonstrate the self-mixing scheme can demodulate the coherent Ф-OTDR signal effectively.

A novel measurement scheme for multiple high-frequency vibrations has been demonstrated by combining phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (Ф-OTDR) and Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based on frequency division multiplexing. The light source is directly launched into the MZI structure, while it was modulated by an acoustic optical modulator (AOM) with a frequency shift of 200 MHz for the Ф-OTDR part. The vibration frequency is obtained by demodulating the interference signal obtained by the MZI structure, while the vibration position is located by Ф-OTDR system. The spatial resolution of 10m is obtained over 3 km sensing fiber. And the detectable vibration frequency reaches up to 40 kHz. Compared to the previous schemes, this system works without dead zone in the detectable frequency range. Furthermore, the frequency spectrum mapping method has been adopted to determine multiple high-frequency vibrations simultaneously. The experimental results prove the concept and match well with the theoretical analysis.

In order to cancel phase fluctuation induced Brillouin gain spectrum (BGS) and Brillouin phase spectrum (BPS) distortions, a new scheme with phase fluctuation cancellation (PFC) is proposed to realize precise BGS and BPS measurements in coherent BOTDA sensors. We present comprehensive and theoretical analysis about the effect of phase fluctuation on the shape of BGS and BPS, and further design a new experimental setup to fully cancel phase fluctuation induced measurement errors. In our new scheme, the two signals sent into the in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) demodulator are almost the same except for the additional amplitude amplification and phase shift induced by Brillouin gain, thus a strict phase synchronization between them has been realized (i.e., PFC). Experimental results show that the biggest BFS decoding error induced by phase fluctuation is reduced from 4.9MHz to 0.4MHz over a 40-km sensing fiber.

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