Long-haul and high-resolution optical time domain reflectometry using superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

In classical optical time domain reflectometries (OTDRs), for sensing an 200-km-long fiber, the optical pulses launched are as wide as tens of microseconds to get enough signal-to-noise ratio, while it results in a two-point resolution of kilometers. To both reach long sensing distance and sub-kilometer resolution, we demonstrated a long-haul photon-counting OTDR using a superconducting nanowire single-photon detector. In a 40-minute-long measurement, we obtained a dynamic range of 46.9 dB, corresponding to a maximum sensing distance of 246.8 km, at a two-point resolution of 0.1 km. The time for measuring fiber after 100 km was reduced to one minute, while the fiber end at 217 km was still distinguished well from noise. After reducing the pulse width to 100 ns, the experimental two-point resolution was improved to 20 m while the maximum sensing distance was 209.47 km.