A simple intensity noise reduction technique for optical low-coherence reflectometry
- 1 December 1992
- journal article
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in IEEE Photonics Technology Letters
- Vol. 4 (12), 1404-1406
- https://doi.org/10.1109/68.180591
Abstract
It is shown that by attenuating the reference power in an optical low-coherence reflectometry (OLCR) measurement, the reflection sensitivity can be improved, even though, in many other types of optical measurements, sensitivity is improved as optical power is increased. The difference is due to the presence of inherent intensity noise associated with low-coherence sources, which can dominate over shot noise at optical powers that are as low as 1 mu W. A reflection sensitivity of -146 dB is demonstrated using this technique.Keywords
This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Measurement of Rayleigh backscattering at 1.55 mu m with 32 mu m spatial resolutionIEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 1992
- Ultrahigh-sensitivity low coherence otdr using Er1+-doped high-power superfluorescent fibre sourceElectronics Letters, 1992
- Optical low coherence reflectometry with 1.9 μm spatial resolutionElectronics Letters, 1992
- Phase-noise and shot-noise limited operations of low coherence optical time domain reflectometryApplied Physics Letters, 1991
- Optical fiber component characterization by high-intensity and high-spatial-resolution interferometric optical-time-domain reflectometerIEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 1991
- Polarization-independent interferometric optical-time-domain reflectometerJournal of Lightwave Technology, 1991