Distributed optical fiber sensing with Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometry based on differential pulse pair

Abstract The spatial resolution of the conventional Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometry system is limited because of the limitation of probe pulse’s pulse-width. To improve the spatial resolution, a novel Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometry based on differential pulse pair is proposed, which is proved theoretically and experimentally to achieve a sub-meter spatial resolution. Additionally, we discuss the influence on spatial resolution with different pulse-width difference and different rise/fall time.