Improve accuracy and measurement range of sensing in km-level OFDR using spectral splicing method

Abstract

In this paper, we propose and demonstrate a spectral splicing method (SSM) for distributed strain sensing based on optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR), which can achieve km level measurement length, µɛ level measurement sensitivity and 104 µɛ level measurement range. Based on the traditional method of cross-correlation demodulation, the SSM replaces the original centralized data processing method with a segmented processing method and achieves precise splicing of the spectrum corresponding to each signal segment by spatial position correction, thus realizing strain demodulation. Segmentation effectively suppresses the phase noise accumulated in the large sweep range over long distances, expands the sweep range that can be processed from the nm level to the 10 nm level, and improves strain sensitivity. Meanwhile, the spatial position correction rectifys the position error in the spatial domain caused by segmentation, which reduces the error from the 10 m level to the mm level, enabling precise splicing of spectra and expanding the spectral range, thus extending the strain range. In our experiments, we achieved a strain sensitivity of ±3.2 µɛ (3σ) over a length of 1 km with a spatial resolution of 1 cm and extended the strain measurement range to 10,000 µɛ. This method provides, what we believe to be, a new solution for achieving high accuracy and wide range OFDR sensing at the km level.