Patent ID: 7719666

Claim:
A distributed optical fiber sensor for measuring strain and/or temperature utilizing a Brillouin scattering phenomenon, comprising: a stepwise optical light source for generating an optical pulse including a first portion having a first time width and a second portion having a greater light intensity than the first portion and a second time width shorter than the first time width, the first portion preceding the second portion in the time domain, a continuous light source for generating a continuous light, a sensing optical fiber on which the optical pulse is incident as probe light and the continuous light is incident as pump light to thereby cause a Brillouin scattering phenomenon between the probe light and the pump light, and a Brillouin time domain detector for determining a Brillouin loss spectrum or a Brillouin gain spectrum from the light emerging from the sensing optical fiber and attributed to the Brillouin scattering phenomenon, and measuring strain caused in and/or temperature of the sensing optical fiber based on the determined Brillouin loss spectrum or the Brillouin gain spectrum.