Potential of stimulated Brillouin scattering as sensing mechanism for distributed temperature sensors

It is demonstrated that stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) occurring in the core of an optical fibre may be used in the construction of a distributed temperature sensor. Initial experiments with a length of fibre have shown that the sensitivity of the Stokes frequency to temperature is approximately 5.5 MHz/ degrees C and that different Stokes frequencies may be observed according to the temperature distribution along the fibre.