Abstract

Degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) techniques used to produce self-adaptive laser resonators based on diffraction from a gain grating have shown considerable promise for correction of distortion in high-power solid-state laser systems. In these systems, the gain grating is formed by spatial hole burning caused by interference of coherent beams in the laser amplifier and modulation of the population inversion. The gain grating formation can be used for phase conjugation by using the amplifier in a four-wave mixing geometiy, for self-pumped phase conjugation by using an input beam in a self-intersecting loop geometiy and for formation of a self-starting adaptive oscillator by providing additional feedback from an output coupler and requiring no external optical input.

© 2001 EPS