Performance Enhancement in Distributed Fiber Sensing by Noise Reduction

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Thomas Schneider
• Subject Area: Measurement Systems ; Automation, Mechatronics, Control Systems, Intelligent Technical Systems, Robotics
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 444026958

• Final Report Year: 2024

Final Report Abstract

In the PEnSNoR project, we have investigated noise reduction methods for distributed fiber sensors based on the principle of stimulated Brillouin scattering. We have developed a new method for post-processing the signals, which improves the signal-to-noise ratio by 3 dB. As a result, either shorter measurement times or longer fiber sensors can be achieved. Another important result of the project were sensors for the radio frequency spectrum, which can measure the occupancy of the wireless spectrum down to the THz range with a resolution of 1 MHz. The SBS is used to convert the frequency difference between the frequencies into a time difference of the measurement signal. One of the publications on this topic was selected as an "Editors Pick" by the editors of Photonics Research and was particularly promoted in the social networks. The coronavirus pandemic, which was an important issue for almost the entire duration of the project, made it very difficult to work on the project. Experimental work was only possible to a limited extent and it was very difficult to recruit new staff after the departure of the employee working on the project. The project results were published in high-ranked scientific journals and at conferences. In particular, they have encouraged us to research new platforms for integrated SBS in the new DFG project LiSoNIP, and - together with 12 other partners - to submit a Horizon Europe proposal to exploit the existing communication fiber infrastructure as a large-scale distributed sensor.

Publications

• Benefits of Spectral Property Engineering in Distributed Brillouin Fiber Sensing. Sensors, 21(5), 1881.
  Feng, Cheng & Schneider, Thomas
  
• Brillouin-scattering-induced transparency enabled reconfigurable sensing of RF signals. Photonics Research, 9(8), 1486.
  Kadum, Jaffar; Das, Ranjan; Misra, Arijit & Schneider, Thomas
  
• Slow Light Enabled Temporal Frequency Discriminator. OSA Advanced Photonics Congress 2021, SpW1F.7. Optica Publishing Group.
  Kadum, Jaffar Emad; Misra, Arijit; Das, Ranjan & Schneider, Thomas
  
• Stimulated Brillouin Scattering-Induced All-Optical Spectrum Sensing. Frontiers in Optics + Laser Science 2021, JTu1A.31. Optica Publishing Group.
  Kadum, Jaffar Emad; Das, Ranjan; Misra, Arijit & Schneider, Thomas
  
• Brillouin-based radio frequency sources. Semiconductors and Semimetals, 53-80. Elsevier.
  Eggleton, Benjamin J., Michael J. Steel & Christopher G. Poulton
  
• Photonic Microwave Frequency Measurement With High Accuracy and Sub-MHz Resolution. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 40(9), 2748-2753.
  Singh, Karanveer; Preusler, Stefan; Misra, Arijit; Zhou, Linjie & Schneider, Thomas
  
• Temporal Disentanglement of Wireless Signal Carriers Based on Quasi-Light-Storage. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 40(20), 6762-6768.
  Kadum, Jaffar Emad; Preußler, Stefan; Das, Ranjan; Mandalawi, Younus & Schneider, Thomas
  
• On-Chip Stimulated Brillouin Scattering Exploiting Polymer Waveguides with Nanoscale Footprint. CLEO 2024, SF3G.8. Optica Publishing Group.
  Yadav, Deepanshu; Singh, Karanveer & Schneider, Thomas