A cost-effective and reliable method for Brillouin optical time domain analysis

In this paper we propose a low-cost and stable configuration of Brillouin Optical Time Domain Analysis (BOTDA). Both pump and probe are generated by one single laser source for steady frequency beating. Polarization-maintaining modulators and amplifiers have been applied into the system in order to suppress the ground noise and to control the stability of the pump pulse. The probe is filtered and amplified to obtain the Stokes wave. The bias voltages of modulators are carefully controlled. We implement the prototype of interrogator by using this method and compare it with commercial products. The result shows that the long-term stability of the prototype is three times higher than that of commercial product.