Optics and Lasers in Engineering 100 (2018) 170175

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Optics and Lasers in Engineering

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Phase-shifting optical ber sensing with rectangular-pulse binary phase

modulation
Zhongjie Ren a,b, Jianxin Li a,b,, Rihong Zhu a,b, Ke Cui b, Qing He b, Hailin Wang b
a
School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
b
MIIT Key Laboratory of Advanced Solid Laser, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Keywords: We propose and demonstrate a new method of phase-shifting optical ber sensing, wherein rectangular-pulse
Fiber optic sensors binary phase modulation is imposed on the laser source of an interferometric ber optic sensor to generate three
Phase modulation phase-shifting steps of 2, 0, and /2 radians at the output, and the phase shifts that carry the vibration sig-
Phase-shifting
nals are demodulated with an orthogonal demodulation algorithm. This approach oers the advantages of high
Orthogonal demodulation
eciency and low complexity because it is simple in design and implementation. Moreover, this method can
Multiplexed system
be applied to successfully realize the demodulation of multiplexed systems based on dierent multiplexing tech-
niques. The techniques are theoretically analyzed and experimentally demonstrated with recovering the sinusoid
wave applied to the sensor. Also, in this paper, a simple multiplexed system is proposed and discussed.
2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction the best of our knowledge, this is the rst time that such a phase modu-
lation has been applied in the IFOS. It is simple in design and implemen-
Fiber optic sensors have attracted considerable attention because of tation because there are no any extra elements needed. Our approach
their high sensitivity, immunity to electromagnetic interference, high- oers the advantages of high eciency and low complexity. In addition,
temperature performance and ease of application to networking and the rectangular-pulse signal is advantageous for high-speed modulation.
multiplexing for tens of years [18]. In particular, interferometric ber
optic sensors (IFOSs) have been widely used in earthquake forecasting, 2. Structure principle and experiment analysis
oil exploration and security monitoring for their high sensitivity [919].
In IFOSs, the methods of detecting the relative optical phase shifts The schematic of the proposed method is shown in Fig. 1. A laser
between the signal and reference arms form a very important part of with a narrow line-width and continuous output is used as the light
sensing. In this regard, researchers have developed several detection source. The isolated continuous light from the source is modulated by
techniques such as the phase-generator carrier (PGC) homodyne or a phase modulator (PM). A stable rectangular pulse signal is generated
heterodyne techniques [2022], path-matched dierential interferome- by the PM driven by a high-frequency signal generator. Subsequently,
try (PMDI) [23,24], and 3 3 coupling multi-phase detection [25,26]. the light beam transfers along the reference and signal arms through
The PGC technique and PMDI technique provide the advantages of a 2 2 coupler. Both sets of signals are reected by Faraday rotator
high sensitivity and are easy to be employed for the multiplexing mirrors (FRMs 1 and 2), and the reference and signal light beams
technology, but they require relatively complex demodulation. The interact with each other at the output of the 2 2 coupler. Finally, the
3 3 coupling multi-phase detection can meet the demand of large interference light intensity signal is acquired by a photo-detector (PD)
signal demodulation, but it is complex when used in multiplexed and processed by an oscilloscope (OSC). At the same time, there is a
system, because there are three outputs per sensor. reference pulse transmitted directly to the OSC for demodulation.
In this scenario, we propose a new method of phase-shifting optical The complex amplitude of the light source that is modulated by the
ber sensing. The key element here is the rectangular-pulse binary phase PM is represented by E with the amplitude A0 can be expressed as [29]
modulation imposed on the laser source of the IFOS, through which we
= 0 exp(2 + ()), (1)
can realize three phase-shifting steps of 2, 0, and /2 radians at the
output, and subsequently, we can obtain the phase shifts that carry the where j denotes the imaginary unit, v the center frequency of the
vibration signals via an orthogonal demodulation algorithm [27,28]. To light source, and (t) the modulated phase. This last parameter can be

Corresponding author at: School of Electronic and Optical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China.
E-mail address: ljx@[Link] (J. Li).

[Link]
Received 15 December 2016; Received in revised form 6 July 2017; Accepted 13 August 2017
Available online 17 August 2017
0143-8166/ 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Ren et al. Optics and Lasers in Engineering 100 (2018) 170175

Fig. 1. Schematic of the ber optic interferometer.

Fig. 2. Time and phase relationships between the modulated phase terms and reference pulse (), ( ), and () ( ). (a) (t); (b) ( ); (c) () ( ); (d) Time intervals
t1 , t2 , t3 , between the three points P1, P2, P3 and the rising edge of reference pulse.

written as Upon assuming = 1 + 0 , the total intensity I can be divided as

follows:
() = 2, < + ,
(2) 1 = + cos( 2), + < 2 + ,
() = 0, + < ( + 1) ,
2 = + cos(), 2 + < ( + 1) , (5)
where k represents a non-negative integer, T the cycle of the rectangular 3 = + cos( + 2), < + ,
pulse, the duration of the rectangular pulse, and 3 T.
The phase of the modulated light source is shown in Fig. 2(a). Assuming that the period of the vibration signal is T1 , in the practical
After modulation, the light beam is split along the signal and reference case, we have T T1 , and thus, it can be considered that the vibration
arms via the 2 2 coupler. The length dierence of the two arms is signal remains unchanged over the time period 0 < t < T. The OSC
L. Further, we have = 2 , where n denotes the refractive index of receives the output intensity and the reference pulse. Subsequently,
the ber and c the speed of light. The electric elds of the reference we obtain the three light intensities I1 , I2 , I3 , corresponding to the
(Er ) and signal (Es ) light beams can be written as three points P1 , P2 , and P3 according to the calibration of t1 , t2 , t3
which represent the time intervals between the three points P1 , P2 , P3
= exp(2 + () + ), and the rising edge of reference pulse shown in Fig. 2(d). The scheme
(3)
= exp(2( ) + ( ) + ), of orthogonal demodulation algorithm is shown in Fig. 3. Using the
orthogonal demodulation algorithm and removing the constant terms
where (t) and ( ) represent the modulated phase terms. The phase A and B, we obtain as follows [27, 28]:
waveform corresponding to ( ) is shown in Fig. 2(b). Parameters
r and s represent the phase shifts in the reference and signal arms, = arctan( ), (6)
respectively, as generated by the vibration. The combined amplitude
where s = 1 3 and c = 22 (1 + 3 ). After elimination of the
at the output can be expressed as = + , and the output light
initial phase term 0 , the vibration signal 1 can be demodulated.
intensity I is expressed as follows [29]:
The process of data acquisition is not complex and we just need three
= 0 0 = + cos(() ( ) + 1 + 0 ), (4) sampling points in one modulation cycle T.
We next tested the validity of our proposed IFOS via experiments.
where A and B are proportional to the optical power, and B also depends A laser source (developed independently by our laboratory, the center
on the mixing eciency of the interferometer. Further, () ( ) wavelength of 1552.596 nm and the line-width smaller than 1000 Hz)
represents the modulated term, whose phase waveform is shown in was used to generate a continuous light beam. A phase modulator
Fig. 2(c). In addition, 1 = represents the phase shifts caused (JDSU Inc. PM150005) driven by a Tektronix signal generator was
by the vibration, and 0 = 2 the initial phase term. used to generate high-frequency rectangular pulses with 28-ns duration

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Fig. 3. Scheme of orthogonal demodulation algorithm.

Fig. 4. Three phase-shifting steps. Fig. 6. Experimental result of the demodulated phase shifts.

Fig. 7. Results of dierent amplitude signals with the same frequency (100 Hz).

Fig. 5. Lissajous curves of Is and Ic . The dotted-line curve represents the experiment re-
sult, and the solid-line curve represents the tting circle. demodulated vibration signal is shown in Fig. 6. Dierent accelerations
with the same frequency (100 Hz) signals were applied to the sensor,
the results of which are shown in Fig. 7. It gives the linearity of 99.8%.
and 10-MHz repetition rate, and the phase modulation depth was /2.
The signal and reference arms were 10 and 7.2 m long, respectively. 3. Multiplexed system and experiments
The 2 2 coupler, the two arms and the two FRMs constitute a sensor
based on two-end xed beam with a sensitivity of 2125 10 rad/g at In practical applications, sensors are always used in arrays of dozens
100 Hz. The sensor was placed on a vibration table (Yangzhou YMC to tens of thousands for earthquake forecasting, oil exploration, and
Technology Co., Ltd. VT20) shown in Fig. 1 which generated vibrations security monitoring. Thus, many multiplexing schemes including time,
of 0.01 g at 100 Hz. The output was detected by a PD and processed frequency, coherence, and wavelength multiplexing [3035] have
by a 10-bit OSC sampling at 200 Ms/s, which yield successful demod- been proposed. Among these multiplexing techniques, time-division
ulation. The three light intensities I1 , I2 , I3 are shown in Fig. 4. The multiplexing (TDM) technique has been shown to have simple system
corresponding Lissajous gure and its tting circle are shown in Fig. 5, structure and high sensitivity. In TDM scheme, the sensors are sequen-
where s = 1 3 and c = 22 (1 + 3 ). The gure indicates that tially addressed using a pulsed input signal such that the time of
there is a close agreement between theory and experiment. The nal ight of the optical pulses in the multiplexed array allows individual

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Fig. 8. Structure of a simple multiplexed system.

Fig. 9. The photograph of the system.

sensor signals to be distinguished. The wavelength-division multiplexed is used to receive and demodulate the signal with real time and the
(WDM) architecture allows many TDM signals at dierent wavelengths reference light pulse is generated inside the demodulator. The delay
to be combined at a single ber. Dense WDM (DWDM) technology, bers are used to avoid pulse overlapping between sensors. The precise
used mainly for telecommunications applications, has made possible control of synchronization to deal with phase informations of four
practical realizations of large, highly multiplexed systems. These sensors was generated and controlled by the demodulator [36].
multiplexed schemes require detection methods suitable for use with In the experiment, 4 lasers (developed independently by our labo-
multiplexed sensors. The method proposed in this paper, with the phase ratory, center wavelength ranges from 1549.3 to 1551.7 nm and the
modulation imposed on the laser source directly without the use of line-widths smaller than 1000 Hz) were combined. An optical switch
active devices on the sensors, can be used to successfully realize the (NANO Inc.) was used to generate light pulses with 400-ns duration
demodulation of multiplexed systems. and 500-KHz repetition rate. A phase modulator (PHOTOLINE Inc.)
The structure of a simple multiplexed system with 4 sensors based was used to generate rectangular pulses with duration of 28 ns and
on the TDM/DWDM multiplexing technology is shown in Fig. 8. The frequency identical to that of the light pulses. The delay ber between
multiplexed system is extensible. The laser sources of 4 dierent each sensor is 50 m. The photograph of the system is shown in Fig. 9. In
wavelengths are coupled together by a wavelength multiplex. The light this photograph, A is the electrical devices of the system; B is the optical
pulses are generated by the modulation of the optical switch, which is chassis including optical devices except for the lasers and sensors; C is
driven by a driver and demodulator. After the rectangular-pulse binary the 4 lasers; D is the power supplies for active devices; E is the sensors
phase modulation driven by the demodulator, the pulses travel into array and F is the sensor. The internal photograph of the optical chassis
the sensor array. In the sensor array, the pulses of each wavelength are is shown in Fig. 10. In this photograph, A is the delay bers; B is the
separated from the travel ber by an optical drop multiplexer (ODM), optical switch and phase modulator; C is the PDs; D is the module to
and then travel into the sensor, the pulses then carry the vibration receive the returned pulses. The total system can be used for large-scale
signals and travel back to the return ber by an add multiplexer (OAM). sensors arrays. In our system above, just parts of the system are used.
At last, a PD receives the pulses with 4 dierent wavelengths which The sensors with natural frequency about 330 Hz were axed to the
carry the vibration signals from the return ber and the demodulator ground and an impact was generated on this ground. Fig. 11 shows the

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Fig. 10. The internal photograph of the optical chassis.

Fig. 11. Vibration signals detected by 4 sensors.

Fig. 13. Multiple results of phase resolution.

iment result of the phase noise of the system is shown in Fig. 12 and
multiple results of the phase resolution are shown in Fig.
13. It indicates
that this system has a phase resolution of 5 104 rad z@100.

4. Conclusion

In conclusion, a new method of phase-shifting optical ber sensing

with rectangular-pulse binary phase modulation is proposed and
demonstrated in this paper. The structure principle is described in
detail and we realized the demodulation of sensors by experiments.
The linearity reach 99.8% corresponding to dierent accelerations.
Moreover, this method can realize the demodulations of multiplexed
systems. The conguration of the multiplexed system is described.
Fig. 12. Phase noise of the system. Whats more, the experiments carried out show the good response of
the sensors, and in the end, the phase
resolution of the system described
in the paper reach 5 104 rad z@100.
demodulated vibration signals of the 4 sensors where S1, S2, S3, S4
represent the four sensors respectively. The results indicate that the de- Acknowledgments
modulated signals accurately reect the time instant and intensity of the
generated impact. This method is simple in design and implementation, This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
it oers the merits of high eciency and low complexity. The exper- of China (NSFC) (61475072), Opening Project of Key Laboratory of

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