SIGNAL (programming language)

Raman scattering

Raman spectroscopy

Engineering

Statistics

Materials science

Optical fiber

Demodulation

Telecommunications

Computer science

Fiber optic sensor

Physics

Multi-mode optical fiber

Mathematics

Optics

Ranging

Electronic engineering

Raman amplification

Programming language

Channel (broadcasting)

Distributed acoustic sensing

Flexibility (engineering)

Optoelectronics

Light Science & Applications

Raman distributed optical fiber sensing has been demonstrated to be a mature and versatile scheme that presents great flexibility and effectivity for the distributed temperature measurement of a wide range of engineering applications over other established techniques. The past decades have witnessed its rapid development and extensive applicability ranging from scientific researches to industrial manufacturing. However, there are four theoretical or technical bottlenecks in traditional Raman distributed optical fiber sensing: (i) The difference in the Raman optical attenuation, a low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the system and the fixed error of the Raman demodulation equation restrict the temperature measurement accuracy of the system. {ii) The sensing distance and spatial resolution cannot be reconciled. (iii) There is a contradiction between the SNR and measurement time of the system. (iv) Raman distributed optical fiber sensing cannot perform dual-parameter detection. Based on the above theoretical and technical bottlenecks, advances in performance enhancements and typical applications of Raman distributed optical fiber sensing are reviewed in this paper. Integration of this optical system technology with knowledge based, that is, demodulation technology etc. can further the performance and accuracy of these systems.

Physics and applications of Raman distributed optical fiber sensing