Abstract

A ring passive phase conjugator (RPPC) is formed using an electrically poled Ba- TiO₃ crystal as the phase conjugator. The input is from a multilongitudinal mode argon-ion laser at 4880 A. Two auxiliary linear oscillators are supported by the RPPC. Kwong and Yariv⁽¹⁾ observed bistability between the two linear oscillators. But we have observed simultaneous existence of the linear oscillators supported by the RPPC. The ring itself shows large fluctuations on a very slow time scale of several minutes. There appears to be a competition between the RPPC and self-pumped phase conjugate from the crystal. If the RPPC is blocked, the self-pump grows from zero but is still weak. In the present configuration, the auxiliary linear oscillators are supported simultaneously by the RPPC, with no bistability. The signal in the linear oscillator shows large fluctuations. If the ring is blocked, the auxiliary oscillator is steady with very small fluctuations and continues to oscillate for any length of time.

© 1989 Optical Society of America