Distributed measurement of hydrostatic pressure based on Brillouin dynamic grating in polarization maintaining fibers.

High-sensitivity distributed measurement of hydrostatic pressure is experimentally demonstrated by optical time-domain analysis of Brillouin dynamic grating (BDG) in polarization maintaining fibers (PMF's). The spectral shift of the BDG in four different types of PMF's are investigated under hydrostatic pressure variation from 14.5 psi (1 bar) to 884.7 psi (61 bar) with less than 2 m spatial resolution. The pressure sensitivity of BDG frequency is measured to be ‒1.69, + 0.65, + 0.78, and + 0.85 MHz/psi for a PM photonic crystal fiber (PM-PCF), two Bow-tie fibers, and a PANDA fiber, respectively, which is about 65 to 169 times larger than that of Brillouin frequency-based pressure sensing.