Urricelqui Polvorinos, JavierSagüés García, MikelLoayssa Lara, Alayn2016-11-152016-11-1520151094-408710.1364/OE.23.030448https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/22706We demonstrate the extension of the measurement range of Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) sensors using a distributed Brillouin amplifier (DBA). The technique is based on injecting a DBA pump wave in the fiber to generate an additional Brillouin interaction that amplifies the BOTDA pump pulses and compensates optical fiber attenuation. This amplification does not introduce any significant noise to the BOTDA’s probe wave due to the inherent directionality of the Brillouin gain. Additionally, we deploy a differential pulse-width pair measurement method to avoid measurement errors due to the interplay between the self-phase modulation effect and the changes in the temporal shape of the pulses induced by the transient behavior of Brillouin gain. Experimental proof-of-concept results in a 50-km fiber link demonstrate full compensa- tion of the fiber’s attenuation with no penalty on the signal-to-noise ratio of the detected signal.application/pdfeng© 2015 Optical Society of America. Users may use, reuse, and build upon the article, or use the article for text or data mining, so long as such uses are for non-commercial purposes and appropriate attribution is maintained. All other rights are reserved.Stimulated Brillouin scatteringFiber optics sensorsBrillouin optical time domain analysisBrillouin amplificationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/articleAcceso abierto / Sarbide irekiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess