A brief review of specialty optical fibers for Brillouin-Scattering-based distributed sensors

Specialty optical fibers employed in Brillouin-based distributed sensors are briefly reviewed. The optical and acoustic waveguide properties of silicate glass optical fiber first are examined with the goal of constructing a designer Brillouin gain spectrum. Next, materials and their effects on the relevant Brillouin scattering properties are discussed. Finally, optical fiber configurations are reviewed, with attention paid to fibers for discriminative or other enhanced sensing configurations. The goal of this brief review is to reinforce the importance of fiber design to distributed sensor systems, generally, and to inspire new thinking in the use of fibers for this sensing application.