Distributed analysis of forward stimulated Brillouin scattering for acoustic impedance sensing by extraction of a 2nd-order local spectrum

Distributed fiber sensors based on forward stimulated Brillouin scattering (F-SBS) have attracted special attention because of their capability to detect the acoustic impedance of liquid material outside fiber. However, the reported results were based on the extraction of a 1st-order local spectrum, causing the sensing distance to be restricted by pump depletion. Here, a novel post-processing technique was proposed for distributed acoustic impedance sensing by extracting the 2nd-order local spectrum, which is beneficial for improving the sensing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) significantly, since its pulse energy penetrates into the fiber more deeply. As a proof-of-concept, distributed acoustic impedance sensing along ～1630 m fiber under moderate spatial resolution of ～20 m was demonstrated.