High-resolution distributed temperature sensing along polymer optical fiber using Brillouin optical correlation-domain reflectometry

Abstract

We present a strategy to enhance spatial resolution in Brillouin optical correlation-domain reflectometry (BOCDR) using perfluorinated graded-index polymer optical fibers (POFs). By exploiting the relationship between modulation amplitude and sensing fiber length, we achieve a theoretical spatial resolution of approximately 4.8 cm, surpassing previous limitations. This is accomplished by increasing the modulation amplitude beyond the conventional limit through reduction of the fiber length relative to the measurement range. We validate our approach with preliminary experiments and demonstrate distributed temperature sensing with high spatial resolution, successfully detecting a cooled section as short as 7.0 cm.