Stable Entire-Length Measurement of Fiber Strain Distribution by Brillouin Optical Correlation-Domain Reflectometry with Polarization Scrambling and Noise-Floor Compensation

We performed a stable high-speed entire-length measurement of strain distribution by suppressing the signal fluctuations automatically using polarization scrambling. Strain distribution along the entire length of a 100-m fiber was successfully measured with 40-cm spatial resolution and 19-Hz sampling rate. We also demonstrated a signal-to-noise ratio improvement by compensating the noise-floor of the electrical spectrum analyzer.