Fiber laser design and measurements for fiber optic hydrophones in their application for ultra-high energy neutrino detection
conference paper
Due to the low expected flux, the detection of ultra-high energy neutrinos with energies above 1018eV requires a neutrino telescope that is at least an order of magnitude larger than what has been achieved today. A potential technology for a large scale neutrino telescope, which is sensitive enough to detect the low thermoacoustic signals induced by the cosmic rays in water, is offered by fiber optical hydrophones. Optical fibers form a natural way to create a distributed sensing system in which several pressure sensitive transducers are attached to a single fiber. At the position of each transducer, a fiber laser is introduced which forms a local coherent light source. In this way a low cost, low power sensor network can be deployed in the abyss that can be scaled to the required volume of a neutrino telescope. The design of one of the key components, the fiber laser, is discussed. Both DFB and DBR laser types were considered and their compatibilty with the transducers have been investigated, as well as their performance when operated in a serial multiplexing mode.
TNO Identifier
572701
ISSN
18248039
Publisher
Proceedings of Science (PoS)
Article nr.
1139
Source title
34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, ICRC 2015 30 July 2015 through 6 August 2015
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