title: Signal to noise and range enhancement of the Brillouin intensity based temperature sensor.
abstract: We report on the theory and use of pre-amplification to enhance the measurement range of a spontaneous Brillouin intensity based distributed fiber-optic sensor. One factor that limits temperature resolution is receiver sensitivity, which degrades for long range sensors. Using optical preamplification before photo detection in a 23km sensor improved the signal-to-noise by approximately 17dB using a 20MHz detector. The major source of noise was amplified spontaneous emission beat noise.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: De Souza
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Newson