Pump-enhanced evaluation scheme of Rayleigh backscattering coefficient distribution of EDF based on optical low-coherence domain reflectometry

•Improvement of resolution in meters-long erbium-doped fiber distributed test.•Enhanced detection for scattering using amplification and low-coherence interference.•Separating Rayleigh backscattering from the conventional gain distribution.•Comparing variation of scattering between erbium-doped fiber and single-mode fiber.