Numerical analysis of single pulse and differential pulse-width pair BOTDA systems in the high spatial resolution regime.

A numerical analysis of conventional and differential pulse-width pair Brillouin optical time domain analysis systems is reported. The tests are focused on determining the performance of these systems especially in terms of spatial resolution, as a function of the pulse characteristics. A new definition of spatial resolution is given, based on analysis of the shape of the Brillouin gain spectrum. The influence of the rise/fall time of the pulse light to the spatial resolution is also studied.