A Brief Review of Specialty Optical Fibers for Brillouin-Scattering-Based Distributed Sensors

Abstract

Specialty optical fibers employed in Brillouin-based distributed sensors are briefly reviewed. The optical and acoustic waveguide properties of silicate glass optical fiber first are examined with the goal of constructing a designer Brillouin gain spectrum. Next, materials and their effects on the relevant Brillouin scattering properties are discussed. Finally, optical fiber configurations are reviewed, with attention paid to fibers for discriminative or other enhanced sensing configurations. The goal of this brief review is to reinforce the importance of fiber design to distributed sensor systems, generally, and to inspire new thinking in the use of fibers for this sensing application.

Comparative analysis of stimulated Brillouin scattering at 2 µm in various infrared glass-based optical fibers

“…This work gives an overview of the SBS features in step-index fibers suitable for the promising 2-µm spectral window, thus paving the way for the design and development of a new class of compact all-fibered Brillouin-based devices for optical processing applications, frequency conversions, widely-tunable narrow-linewidth lasers and sensing [55][56][57][58].…”

Glass: The carrier of light—Part II—A brief look into the future of optical fiber

“…This trend is being driven by power-scaling requirements in a variety of applications including directed energy, laser-based materials processing and manufacturing, and sensing systems. 53,[66][67][68][69][70] As noted in the "How low can you go?" Section, optical nonlinearities that arise at high intensities are especially problematic, and presently limit continued power-scaling for high beam quality / diffraction-limited output.…”

“…A recent trend in the development and use of optical fibers is power; both in continuous wave (CW) and pulsed laser systems. This trend is being driven by power‐scaling requirements in a variety of applications including directed energy, laser‐based materials processing and manufacturing, and sensing systems 53,66‐70 …”

“…The crystal‐derived all‐glass optical fibers have been discussed above and represent an exciting and potentially high impact area for continued study, particularly as relates to fiber‐based high energy laser 20,53,82 and sensor 70 systems. Of those reported to date, by far the most studied and practically developed are those of the YAG‐derived yttrium aluminosilicate systems, 221‐231 which have exhibited quite remarkable properties for what is a relatively simple material system and straight‐forward fiber processing approach.…”

AlPO4 in Silica Glass Optical Fibers: Deduction of Additional Material Properties

“…This has a secondary influence on the core index and acoustic velocity that enters into the model as a correction [22], [36]. More details on these various models can be found summarized in [9], and the model utilized to calculate the acoustic modes can be found in [37], [38].…”