Modelling Intensity Fluctuations of Rayleigh Backscattered Coherent Light in Single-Mode Fibers

This work reportsa thorough analysis of intensity fluctuations of Rayleigh backscattered coherent light in single mode optical fibers. Based on the intermediate range order of silica glasses and on residual stress of optical fibers, a theoretical model was built to calculate intensity fluctuations of Rayleigh backscattered coherent light in the optical frequency domain. Numerical simulation results were compared to experimental results in time domain, strongly supporting the conclusion that Rayleigh backscattering in single mode fibers is an ergodic process exhibiting ergodicity in the time-frequency sense so that the model can be used to determine the statistical behavior of backscattered intensity fading.