A Module for Processing Optical Signals from Devices Based on a Self-Sweeping Fiber Laser

A module has been designed for automated acquisition and preliminary processing of optical signals from devices based on a fiber laser with frequency self-sweeping. The primary processing, i.e., pulse-by-pulse data normalization, is performed using a microcontroller. Signals are then transmitted to a personal computer for further processing in the form of the dependence of the signal amplitude on the pulse number. The optimal characteristics of the used analog-to-digital converter are as follows: the sampling rate is 5 MHz and the bit depth is at least 8 bits. The operation of the module was tested in an optical frequency reflectometer for interrogating fiber sensors.