Brillouin scattering based sensor in high gamma dose environment: Design and optimization of optical fiber for long-term distributed measurement

Abstract : Brillouin sensing is an interesting technology to monitor strain inside large civil engineering structures like nuclear waste repository. In radiative environments, performance degradation of Brillouin systems still needs to be investigated. In this paper, we fully characterized the Brillouin response of two different optical fibers, including the SMF28 fiber from Corning, under high gamma doses. Radiations increase the fiber linear attenuation and can also lead to a shift in the Brillouin frequency. We reduced these effects by designing a radiation resistant optical fiber. This fiber is well adapted for distributed sensing application using Brillouin scattering in MGy dose level environment.