Impact of Pulse Width on the Sensitivity and Range of a Raman-based Distributed Fiberoptic Temperature Sensor

Abstract This work presents the operation of a spontaneous Raman scattering-based distributed fiber-optic temperature sensor using a commercial OTDR and a standard EDFA optical amplification in a simple and economic scheme. We present both theoretical and experimental results regarding the sensor's sensitivity and performance in seven different configurations, using OTDR pulses of 100 ns to 4000 ns for two detection regions, in the beginning and ending sections of a 27 km standard single-mode fiber sensor link. The results reveal the trade-off between sensor sensitivity, resolution and range, regarding the use of different OTDR pulsewidths.