LARGE-SCALE INTERFEROMETRIC FIBER SENSOR ARRAYS WITH MULTIPLE OPTICALAMPLIFIERS

We report what we believe to be the first laboratory prototype of a fi ber sensor array using multiple low-gain (5 dB) remotely pumped amplif iers in a 10-rung ladder structure. Incorporating amplifiers improves the system noise figure to less than 20 dB, compared with 32 dB in an optimized passive array of the same size. Scalability to more than 300 sensors per fiber pair while a high dynamic range (1 mu rad/sensitivi ty) is maintained is demonstrated. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America .