Abstract
In discussions of the noise limitations of coherent optical sensors it is usually assumed that in absence of externally applied temperature or pressure variations, the optical path length of a single mode fiber has a perfectly well defined value. This is not strictly true. At any temperature above absolute zero, there will be statistical fluctuations of all the physical properties, including the optical path length, and this will set a lover limit to the measurable phase shift due to an external influence. These fluctuations are as unavoidable as Johnson Noise; they are significant for the fiber because of its small size. In this paper the magnitude and spectral distribution of these fluctuations are calculated. Some aspects of this problem have recently been discussed by Shelby, Levenson and Bayer (1). The present treatment approaches the problem in a slightly different way.
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References
R. M. Shelby, M. 0. Levenson and P. W. Bayer; Guided Acoustic-Wave Brillouin Scattering, Phys. Rev. B H. pp. 5244–5252, 15 April 1985.
L. D. Landau and E.M. Lifshitz; Statitical Physics, Pergamon Press LTD, London — Paris, 1958, distributed by Addison — Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., Reading, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
I. L. Fabelinskii,Molecular Scattering of Light, Plenum Press, New York, 1968.
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© 1987 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht
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Glenn, W.H. (1987). Thermodynamic Limitations to the Measurement of Phase Shifts in Optical Fibers. In: Chester, A.N., Martellucci, S., Scheggi, A.M.V. (eds) Optical Fiber Sensors. NATO ASI Series, vol 132. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3611-9_18
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3611-9_18
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-8116-0
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-3611-9
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