We report on the development of a precision-tunable, dual wavelength, optical light source suitable for high
performance fiber optic Brillouin scattering distributed sensing. The design is based on an Optical Phase Locked Loop
(OPLL) system using novel narrow linewidth, low frequency noise and high stability PLANEX external cavity
semiconductor. The inherent wavelength stability of PLANEX lasers (typically an order of magnitude better that any
DFB laser on the market) enable the OPLL to operate continuously over a wide ambient temperature range without
degradation in wavelength locking performance. The OPLL architecture is implemented with polarization maintaining
(PM) components and has a very low beat frequency jitter on the order of few kHz. The OPLL frequency tuning range
is between 8 and 14 GHz, with fast tuning of sweep steps on the order of 100 μsec. Such a frequency tuning range
covers practically all corresponding temperature and strain sensing applications based on the measurement of the
frequency shift produced by spontaneous or stimulated Brillouin scattering, and thus is a versatile and enabling
technology for both BOTDA/BOTDR distributed sensing systems.
OPLL based on 1550 nm narrow linewidth Planar External Cavity Lasers (PLANEX) with PM output offer several
advantages over OPLL based on the conventional DFB or fiber lasers such as bandwidth requirements, high coherent
efficiency, absence of the phase reversal and long term locking stability over ambient temperature changes. Such
requirements are critical in the field of microwave photonics, LIDAR, coherent optical communications and optical
metrology. We report a development of OPLL, optimized for distributed BOTDA/BOTDR Brillouin sensing applications.
Conventional approach for distributed fiber optic Brillouin scattering (BOTDR) use a heterodyne architecture for
detection of Brillouin scattering signals. With such approach bandwidth (BW) of the optical detector play one of the
most critical roles in accuracy of the BOTDR detection. Such coherent detection require a 12 GHz bandwidth of
microwave detector which bring excessive noise and high cost of the implementation. OPLL with LO having frequency
offset of the order of Brillouin frequency, i.e. 9-12 GHz allow to use low RF BW detection of BOTDR signal. Such
detection allow much higher sensitivity, lower noise contribution and offer considerable cost saving for BOTDR
distributed sensing and monitoring
Beat frequency stability of OPLL was on the order of few kHz and linewidth of the locked lasers was less then 20 kHz.
Coherent efficiency of OPLL was better the 85%. Inherent wavelength stability of ECL (order of magnitude better then any
of DFB lasers) allows continuous operation of OPLL without losing locking accuracy. OPLL stability was demonstrated over
48 hours of continuous operation.
The presence of laser phase noise (or frequency jitter) limits the resolution of a variety of interferometric sensors ranging from fiber optic acoustic sensors to gravitational wave detectors. At low frequencies, 0 to 100 kHz, the laser phase noise in semiconductor and diode pumped solid-state lasers is dominated by 1/f noise, the source of which is not well understood. We report on phase noise measurements for external cavity semiconductor lasers (ECSLs) utilizing a fiber Bragg grating in a compact butterfly package design produced by K2 Optronics. The results show that the phase noise is dominated by 1/f noise for low frequencies (10 to 100 kHz) transitioning to a white noise due to spontaneous emission for f > 100 kHz. We observed a factor of 40 improvement in the magnitude of the 1/f phase noise as compared to previously published results for a Hitachi HLP 1400 830 nm diode laser. The magnitude of the low frequency phase noise ranges from 100 to 10 microradians per meter per root Hz for frequencies ranging from 10 Hz to 2 kHz. These results are within a factor of 10 for phase noise measurements of the more expensive Lightwave Electronics Nd:YAG laser and a variety of Er-doped fiber lasers in this frequency range. For nominally similar ECSLs, experimental results indicate that the phase noise increases for lasers with larger leakage currents. Linewidth measurement results showed a Schawlow-Townes inverse power dependence for output powers up to 33 mWatts with the observed onset of a linewidth floor of 30 kHz. The RIN of the ECSLs varied from -120 to -155 dB Vrms per root Hz for frequencies ranging from 10 to 500 kHz. These RIN results are roughly equal to those observed for the Nd:YAG laser for frequencies less that 100 kHz. In summary, such low phase noise and RIN results make such ECSLs suitable for all but the most sensitive fiber optic sensing applications where the frequency range of interest is below 1 MHz.
External cavity lasers (ECL) based on semiconductor diode gain
elements and Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG) have been developed for
Telecom (OC-48) nd Analog (CATV, QAM) applications. They possess
very narrow linewidth (100 kHz) and exceptional wavelength stability.
These qualities makes them attractive platform for implementation of
heterodyne sources and Optical Phase Locked Loops (OPLL) for
Microwave Photonics applications.
We discuss two types of such heterodyne sources: heterodyne
oscillator based on heterodyning of two ECL, and fixed frequency
heterodyne oscillators based on ECL with FBG written in the polarization maintaining fiber.
All two types of heterodyne sources were built based on industry
standard 14-pin butterfly package. All of them exhibited excellent
wavelength stability (less than 1 pm/mA and 1-2 pm/°C).
Fixed frequency sources provided beat oscillation around 40 GHz.
We present performance characteristics and measurement data on
(linewidth, phase noise, heterodyne mixing, etc.) and discuss the merits of ECL use as heterodyne sources for Microwave Photonics applications.
Directly modulated External Cavity Laser Diode (ECLD) is an attractive alternative for extended reach source lasers for metro area telecommunications. This paper reports ECLD with transmission rate of 2.5Gbit/s and transmission distance of 650 km packaged in industry standard 14pin butterfly package. High stability package was the key in achieving Telcordia qualification. Combination of narrow linewidth and high bandwidth allows OC-48 transmission for distances comparable with the ones typical for EML. This lasers exhibit +/-30 pm wavelength stability over temperature range of -15 to +75C which makes it suitable for 100 and 50 GHz spacing applications without wavelength locker. ECLD can be operated using standard laser driver. Results using Vitesse 7940 and Analog Devises 2841 laser driver are presented. Typical extinction ratio obtained with these drivers was 10dB. Peak to peak jitter was <40ps. Dispersion penalty with these drivers transmission was found to be <1.9dB for the 650km of standard SMF-28 fiber (No dispersion compensation). Dispersion penalty vs transmission distance data will be presented. Results of the study of nonlinear effects in multi channels link will be reported. We observed that there was self phase modulation effect leading to reduction in dispersion power penalty. This effect can be used to transmit single channel over distances longer then 650km. We showed that there was negligible crosstalk penalty and no FWM penalty. Threshold for stimulated Brillouin scattering was also investigated.
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