Optical pulse compression reflectometry based on single-sideband modulator driven by electrical frequency-modulated pulse

•A novel scheme generating linear frequency-modulated optical pulse is proposed.•Optical extinction ratio affects the system performance.•A stable and accurate system is demonstrated using new scheme.

We propose a novel scheme to generate a linear frequency-modulated optical pulse with high extinction ratio based on an electrical frequency-modulated pulse and optical single-sideband modulator. This scheme is proved to improve the stability and accuracy of optical pulse compression reflectometry (OPCR). In the experiment, a high spatial resolution of 10 cm and a long measurement range of 10.8 km using a laser source with 2-km coherence length are demonstrated.