Designing of Fiber Bragg Gratings for Long-Distance Optical Fiber Sensing Networks

Abstract

Most optical sensors on the market are optical fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors with low reflectivity (typically 7-40%) and low side-lobe suppression (SLS) ratio (typically SLS <15 dB), which prevents these sensors from being effectively used for long-distance remote monitoring and sensor network solutions. This research is based on designing the optimal grating structure of FBG sensors and estimating their optimal apodization parameters necessary for sensor networks and long-distance monitoring solutions. Gaussian, sine, and raised sine apodizations are studied to achieve the main requirements, which are maximally high reflectivity (at least 90%) and side-lobe suppression (at least 20 dB), as well as maximally narrow bandwidth (FWHM<0.2 nm) and FBGs with uniform (without apodization). Results gathered in this research propose high-efficiency FBG grating apodizations, which can be further physically realized for optical sensor networks and long-distance (at least 40 km) monitoring solutions.