Long-distance fiber-optic point-sensing systems based on random fiber lasers

We find that the random fiber laser (RFL) without point-reflectors is a temperature-insensitive distributed lasing system for the first time. Inspired by such thermal stability, we propose the novel concept of utilizing the RFL to achieve long-distance fiber-optic remote sensing, in which the RFL offers high-fidelity and long-distance transmission for the sensing signal. Two 100km fiber Bragg grating (FBG) point-sensing schemes based on RFLs are experimentally demonstrated using the first-order and the second-order random lasing, respectively, to verify the concept. Each sensing scheme can achieve >20dB optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) over 100km distance. It is found that the second-order random lasing scheme has much better OSNR than that of the first-order random lasing scheme due to enhanced lasing efficiency, by incorporating a 1455nm FBG into the lasing cavity. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America