Transmission-Reflection Performance Analysis Using Oxide Nanoparticle-Doped High Scattering Fibers

We present results for the disturbance location characterization of Transmission-Reflection Analysis (TRA)-based sensors using three different optical fibers doped with dielectric nanoparticles (DNP). Different DNPs (SrO, CaO and MgO) lead to different sensors' performance due to the composition-dependent properties. Fibers doped with bigger DNPs lead to higher Rayleigh backscattering attenuation, which unable the use of larger fiber length. Alternatively, fibers with smaller DNPs presented spatial resolution (SR) of 0.2 cm with signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 32 dB for 150 cm-along fiber under test. In some fibers, the high attenuation led to a negligible backscattering power variation. The results obtained in this work indicate the feasibility of using DNP fibers in sensors applications in which the different compounds can be selected or even optimized considering the demands for each application such SNR, SR, dynamic range and sensitivity.