Li Bin, Zhou Qiang, Zhang Ruiming, Li Junyi, Zhou Heng, Li Hao, Ling Yun, Wang Yunxiang, Deng Guangwei, Wang You, Shi Lin, Qiu Kun, Song Haizhi
Appl Opt. 2018 Oct 20;57(30):8824-8828. doi: 10.1364/AO.57.008824.
Optical time-domain reflectometry (OTDR) is a widely employed instrument for monitoring the property of fiber links. Traditional OTDR always suffers from the trade-off between its spatial resolution and the sensitivity of light detection. Therefore, it cannot be applied in critical applications, such as in aviation, where OTDR with a high spatial resolution of several centimeters is required. In this paper, we develop a cost-effective photon-counting OTDR based on our homemade gain-switching pulsed laser at 850 nm. Thanks to the short pulse width of the laser and the relatively small time jitter of the photon detector, our photon-counting OTDR achieves a spatial resolution of less than 9 cm and satisfies the requirements for monitoring short fiber links in various types of airplanes. Finally, we realize a fully running system for monitoring an optical cable with 32 fiber channels on a plane.
光时域反射仪（OTDR）是一种广泛用于监测光纤链路特性的仪器。传统的OTDR总是在其空间分辨率和光检测灵敏度之间存在权衡。因此，它不能应用于关键应用中，例如在航空领域，那里需要具有几厘米高空间分辨率的OTDR。在本文中，我们基于自制的850 nm增益开关脉冲激光器开发了一种经济高效的光子计数OTDR。由于激光器的短脉冲宽度和光子探测器相对较小的时间抖动，我们的光子计数OTDR实现了小于9 cm的空间分辨率，并满足了监测各类飞机中短光纤链路的要求。最后，我们实现了一个用于在飞机上监测具有32个光纤通道的光缆的完整运行系统。
