Hybrid distributed Raman amplification combining random fiber laser based 2nd-order and low-noise LD based 1st-order pumping

作者:Jia, Xin-Hong; Rao, Yun-Jiang*; Yuan, Cheng-Xu; Li, Jin; Yan, Xiao-Dong; Wang, Zi-Nan; Zhang, Wei-Li; Wu, Han; Zhu, Ye-Yu; Peng, Fei
来源:Optics Express, 2013, 21(21): 24611-24619.
DOI:10.1364/OE.21.024611

摘要

A configuration of hybrid distributed Raman amplification (H-DRA), that is formed by incorporating a random fiber laser (RFL) based 2nd-order pump and a low-noise laser-diode (LD) based 1st-order pump, is proposed in this paper. In comparison to conventional bi-directional 1st-order DRA, the effective noise figure (ENF) is found to be lower by amount of 0 to 4dB due to the RFL-based 2nd-order pump, depending on the on-off gain, while the low-noise 1st-order Raman pump is used for compensating the worsened signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the vicinity towards the far end of the fiber and avoiding the potential nonlinear impact induced by excess injection of pump power and suppressing the pump-signal relative intensity noise (RIN) transfer. As a result, the gain distribution can be optimized along ultra-long fiber link, due to combination of the 2nd-order RFL and low-noise 1st-order pumping, making the transmission distance be extended significantly. We utilized such a configuration to achieve ultra-long-distance distributed sensing based on Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA). A repeater-less sensing distance record of up to 154.4km with 5m spatial resolution and similar to +/- 1.4 degrees C temperature uncertainty is successfully demonstrated.