Abstract

In experiments at the Naval Research Laboratory, to explore beam cleanup and beam combining, up to twenty-four separate pump beams were used in a crossed-beam geometry.^1,2 These beams were used to amplify a Stokes seed beam propagating along the beam axis. Four-wave mixing was suppressed in this geometry, leading to better beam quality than when on-axis pump beams are used. However, pump replication is observed to occur.

© 1989 Optical Society of America