We demonstrate a single-mode Brillouin fiber ring laser, which is passively stabilized at pump resonance frequency by using self-injection locking of semiconductor pump laser. Resonance condition for Stokes radiation is achieved by length fitting of Brillouin laser cavity. The laser generate single-frequency Stokes wave with linewidth less than 0.5 kHz using approximately 17-m length cavity.

Moving differential and dynamic window moving averaging are simple and well-known signal processing algorithms. However, the most common methods of obtaining sufficient signal-to-noise ratios in distributed acoustic sensing use expensive and precise equipment such as laser sources, photoreceivers, etc., and neural network postprocessing, which results in an unacceptable price of an acoustic monitoring system for potential customers. This paper presents the distributed fiber-optic acoustic sensors data processing and noise suppression techniques applied both to raw data (spatial and temporal amplitude distributions) and to spectra obtained after the Fourier transform. The performance of algorithms’ individual parts in processing distributed acoustic sensor’s data obtained in laboratory conditions for an optical fiber subjected to various dynamic impact events is studied. A comparative analysis of these parts’ efficiency was carried out, and for each type of impact event, the most beneficial combinations were identified. The feasibility of existing noise reduction techniques performance improvement is proposed and tested. Presented algorithms are undemanding for computation resources and provide the signal-to-noise ratio enhancement of up to 13.1 dB. Thus, they can be useful in areas requiring the distributed acoustic monitoring systems’ cost reduction as maintaining acceptable performance while allowing the use of cheaper hardware.

We report a simple technical solution for precise adjustment of short fiber cavities commonly used with Brillouin fiber lasers. The technique is based on recording the Brillouin response of the cavity to the frequency scanned laser radiation. The recorded traces are used to calculate the excess cavity length that needs to be removed from the original cavity to provide its precise adjustment to the Brillouin resonance at any preselected pump laser wavelength. The adjusted laser cavity is simultaneously resonant for pump and Stokes radiation. For demonstration of the approach, fine adjustment of a 4 m long ring cavity based on standard Corning SMF-28 fiber is performed.

Self-injection locking of DFB laser implemented through the laser coupling with an external fiber optic ring cavity allows its direct employment as an interrogating light source for a phase sensitive OTDR acoustic sensor. Distributed detection and localization of dynamic perturbations of the optical fiber is experimentally demonstrated at the distance of 9270Â m. Keywords: Self-injection locking, Optical fiber resonator, Ï-OTD