Phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (Ф-OTDR) is an effective way to detect vibrations and acoustic waves with high sensitivity, by interrogating coherent Rayleigh backscattering light in sensing fiber. In particular, fiber-optic distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) based on the Ф-OTDR with phase demodulation has been extensively studied and widely used in intrusion detection, borehole seismic acquisition, structure health monitoring, etc., in recent years, with superior advantages such as long sensing range, fast response speed, wide sensing bandwidth, low operation cost and long service lifetime. Significant advances in research and development (R&D) of Ф-OTDR have been made since 2014. In this review, we present a historical review of Ф-OTDR and then summarize the recent progress of Ф-OTDR in the Fiber Optics Research Center (FORC) at University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), which is the first group to carry out R&D of Ф-OTDR and invent ultra-sensitive DAS (uDAS) seismometer in China which is elected as one of the ten most significant technology advances of PetroChina in 2019. It can be seen that the Ф-OTDR/DAS technology is currently under its rapid development stage and would reach its climax in the next 5 years.

相位敏感的光学时域反射仪（Ф-OTDR）通过询问传感光纤中相干的瑞利背向散射光，是一种具有高灵敏度的检测振动和声波的有效方法。特别地，近年来，基于Ф-OTDR的带相位解调的光纤分布式声波传感（DAS）已被广泛研究并广泛用于入侵检测，井眼地震采集，结构健康监测等方面。如感应范围长，响应速度快，感应带宽宽，运行成本低，使用寿命长等。自2014年以来，Ф-OTDR的研究与开发（R＆D）取得了重大进展。