High SNR Φ-OTDR with Multi-Transverse Modes Heterodyne Matched-Filtering Technology

Phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometer (Φ-OTDR) has attracted attention in scientific research and industry because of its distributed dynamic linear response to external disturbances. However, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of Φ-OTDR is still a limited factor by the weak Rayleigh Backscattering coefficient. Here, the multi-transverse modes heterodyne matched-filtering technology is proposed to improve the system SNR. The capture efficiency and nonlinear threshold are increased with multiple transverse modes in few-mode fibers; the incident light energy is permitted to be enlarged by a wider probe pulse by using heterodyne matched-filtering without spatial resolution being deteriorated. As far as we know, this is the first time that both multi-transverse modes integration method and digital heterodyne matched filtering method have been used to improve the SNR of Φ-OTDR simultaneously. Experimental results show that the noise floor is reduced by 11.4 dB, while the target signal is kept. We believe that this proposed method will help DAS find important applications in marine acoustic detection and seismic detection.