Distributed Rayleigh Fiber Sensing Enabling Quantitative Monitoring in Real Time of the Refractive Index with a Sub-cm Resolution

Distributed sensors based on Rayleigh scattering have become an indispensable tool for monitoring vibrations and localizing acoustic sources [1]. However, the techniques developed so far are generally limited in spatial and/or temporal resolutions, thus preventing acces to localized and rapid phenomena. Here we demonstrate a novel sensor architecture that offers simultaneously a spatial resolution below the cm, and an acquisition rate of 20 kHz.