TY - JOUR A1 - Lu, Xin A1 - Königsbauer, Korbinian A1 - Hicke, Konstantin T1 - Improved phase retrieval method for system simplification or fading suppression in interferometer-based φOTDR systems N2 - Phase sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (φOTDR) systems based on different types of interferometers for phase retrieval typically require two or three photodetectors to record the outputs from the interferometer. A novel signal processing principle is proposed for phase retrieval by taking the difference between two outputs as the quadrature component and reconstructing the in-phase component via Hilbert transformation of the Q component for IQ demodulation. Thus, only one balanced photodetector or two standard photodetectors are need, reducing system complexity and data volume. This principle can also be used to suppress fading effect for the traditional three-detector φOTDR systems by selecting optimal phases across detector pairs. Experiments with a φOTDR systems based on an imbalanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer validate the feasibility of this method and demonstrate a high fading suppression of about 90%. KW - Phase retrieval KW - Distributed fiber sensing KW - Structural health monitoring PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-652630 DO - https://doi.org/10.1364/OE.580984 SN - 1094-4087 VL - 33 IS - 26 SP - 54733 EP - 54746 PB - Optica Publishing Group AN - OPUS4-65263 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -