Abstract
This investigation presents and demonstrates the feasibility of a novel fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor system using a fiber ring laser with a hybrid amplifier. The hybrid amplifier comprises an erbium-doped waveguide amplifier (EDWA) and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). Experimental results demonstrate that the hybrid amplifier has a higher amplifier spontaneous emission power and gain spectrum. Moreover, this novel fiber ring laser provides a stable multiwavelength output with an optical signal-to-noise ratio over 50 dB, even when FBGs are located at a 25 km remote sensing position. The primary feature of the proposed fiber laser is that it facilitates a long-distance or a large-scale sensor system. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.