Disclosed herein is a method comprising injecting light of a first wavelength λ.sub.1 into a wavelength division multiplexer; injecting light of a second wavelength λ.sub.2 into the wavelength division multiplexer; combining the light of the first wavelength λ.sub.1 and the light of the second wavelength λ.sub.2 in the wavelength division multiplexer to produce light of a third wavelength λ.sub.3; and reflecting the light of the third wavelength λ.sub.3 in a dual-Brillouin peak optical fiber that is in communication with the wavelength divisional multiplexer; wherein the dual-Brillouin peak optical fiber has at least two Brillouin peaks, such that an amplitude A.sub.1 of at least one of said Brillouin peaks is within 50% to 150% of an amplitude A.sub.2 of another Brillouin peak 0.5A2≤A.sub.1≤1.5A.sub.2; wherein the dual-Brillouin peak optical fiber generates a Brillouin dynamic grating that reflects an improved back-reflected Brillouin signal of the combined light.

A fiber-optic system for use in optical sensing includes a multicore sensing fiber having at least two cores of which each of the at least two cores has a first core diameter, and a multicore lead-in fiber having at least two cores including a position corresponding with the position of the at least two cores of the multicore sensing fiber. Each of the at least two cores of the multicore lead-in fiber have a second core diameter. The second core diameter is substantially larger than the first core diameter. The system further includes an alignment means for aligning the multicore sensing fiber and the multicore lead-in fiber so that the lead-in fiber and the multicore sensing fiber are configured for coupling radiation between the fibers through the cores.

A filter device includes: an optical fiber that allows light having a predetermined wavelength to propagate in multimode; a first higher-order mode filter that removes at least part of the light in any higher order mode than a predetermined mode in the light in the multimode propagating in the optical fiber; and a fiber Bragg grating that transmits the light having the predetermined wavelength and reflects light having a particular wavelength longer than the predetermined wavelength.

A distributed acoustic system (DAS) may comprise an interrogator and an umbilical line attached at one end to the interrogator, a downhole fiber attached to the umbilical line at the end opposite the interrogator. The interrogator may further include a proximal circulator, a distal circulator connected to the proximal circulator by a first fiber optic cable, and a second fiber optic cable connecting the proximal circulator and the distal circulator.

An optical fiber grating sensing method applied to small-scale fire source monitoring are provided, distinguishing two concepts of a spatial resolution and a perception resolution, under the premise of ensuring the spatial resolution of a traditional fiber Bragg grating sensing system, only increase the number of fiber Bragg gratings covered by a single pulsed optical signal without changing a pulse width of a pulsed optical signal, so as to improve the perception resolution of the system without increasing the requirements for a hardware circuit, and truly shorten an interval between adjacent fiber Bragg gratings. Improving the perception resolution of the system, which not only ensures the spatial resolution of the system, but also realizes the monitoring of small-scale fire sources; by adopting a simple feature extraction algorithm to obtain fire temperature information in different areas, the temperature detection speed of the system is fast.

An optical fiber with one or more microgratings is disclosed. Methods and apparatus are described for making an optical fiber with one or more microgratings. Methods and apparatus are described for an optical fiber with one or more microgratings Optical sensing methods and an optical sensing system effectively decouple strain range from the laser tuning range, permit the use of a smaller tuning range without sacrificing strain range, and compensate for ambiguity in phase measurements normally associated with smaller tuning ranges.

Methods and devices for a single wavelength fiber optic sensor system are described. Sensing is based on relative shift in spectral responses of two co-located fiber gratings (FBGs) within a fiber optic cable and measured at one measurement wavelength. Under a range of conditions of interest, the shift in spectral responses maintains the measurement wavelength within respective slopes of the spectral responses. A normalized difference in reflected power is used to desensitize the measurement from any variation in power of the single laser power and/or in loss through the fiber optic cable. Several pairs of co-located FBGs may be used within the same fiber optic cable, each pair used for sensing at a corresponding location. An OTDR system couples light pulses at the measurement wavelength to the fiber optic cable, and measures amplitudes and timing of corresponding reflected light pulses to perform the normalized difference.

Structures that include a Bragg grating and methods of fabricating a structure that includes a Bragg grating. The structure includes a waveguide core and a Bragg grating having a plurality of segments positioned with a spaced arrangement adjacent to the waveguide core. Each segment includes one or more exterior surfaces. The structure further includes a silicide layer located on the one or more exterior surfaces of each segment.

A surgical robotic user input apparatus has a fiber optic cable with a handheld user input device attached at one end, and a connector attached at another end. Multiple intrinsic sensors, such as fiber Bragg grating sensors, are in the fiber optic cable. The intrinsic sensors are used to detect a pose of the handheld user input device. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

A sensor to sense pressure in a pressure bottle and a method of assembling the sensor involve two or more fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) affixed to a different radial location of a diaphragm seal of the pressure bottle. The sensor includes a light source to provide incident light to the two or more FBGs, and a photodetector to detect reflected light resulting from the two or more FBGs. Processing circuitry determines a pressure change in the pressure bottle based on the reflected light resulting from each of the two or more FBGs.