Foaleng Mafang, StellaRodríguez-Barrios, FélixMartin-Lopez, SoniaGonzález-Herráez, MiguelThévenaz, Luc2011-01-072011-01-072011-01-07201110.1364/OL.36.000097https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/62809WOS:000286188100001We show that the spectral broadening of the pump pulse through self-phase modulation in a time-domain distributed Brillouin sensor has a considerably detrimental effect in the measurement, especially in the case of long distances and high-resolution pulses. Using 30ns pump pulses with peak power of 276mW, self-phase modulation leads to a doubling of the effective gain linewidth after some 20km, which is equivalent to a contrast loss of 2dB in the measurement. The impact is higher for shorter pulses (higher resolution). The theoretical modeling is fully confirmed by experimental results.Fiber optics and optical communications : Fiber optics sensorsNonlinear optics : Stimulated scattering, modulation, etc.Nonlinear optics : Kerr effectNonlinear optics : Nonlinear optics, fibersScattering : Scattering, stimulated Brillouintext::journal::journal article::research article