Abstract

From the thermodynamic point of view, there is an apparent paradox in the idealized (lossless) phase conjugate beam healing process. When a beam of light passes through a phase aberrator, an object having spatially varying refractive-index gradients, the entropy of the light increases. On phase conjugate reflection the reflected (conjugate) wave retraces its path, and, on retransit through the phase aberrator, the transmitted beam is restored to its original state.

© 1987 Optical Society of America