152 km-range single-ended distributed acoustic sensor based on inline optical amplification and a micromachined enhanced-backscattering fiber

In this Letter, a distributed acoustic sensor (DAS) with a sensing range in excess of 150 km is reported. This extended sensing range is achieved by adding a low-loss enhanced-backscattering fiber at the far end of a standard single-mode fiber. A conventional DAS system along with inline optical amplifiers are used to interrogate the sensing fiber. The combined system exhibits a minimum detectable strain of 40 n ε at 1 Hz over a spatial resolution of 5 m.