Abstract

Optical Fibre sensing is a significant research area given its versatility and suitability to the industrial environment. Among all the proposed fibre-based sensors, Fibre Bragg Gratings (FBG) have proven exceptional performance in terms of linearity and re-configurability [1]. FBG sensors have been vastly used in the last years due to its well-known advantages and, therefore, a variety of interrogation systems have been also proposed [2]. However, the overall cost of a FBG-based optical sensing network is determined in large part by the interrogation system [3], leading to a limitation in their deployment. On the other hand, the increasing production and commercialization of long-wavelength Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser (VCSEL) in the last years allows their use in systems working at the 1.5 μm band. This paper aims at pushing the limits of the dynamic behaviour of long wavelength VCSELs in order to identify and track the FBG wavelengths inside a network.

© 2015 IEEE