Abstract
Many researchers have studied the noise properties of optical amplifiers and have shown theoretically that all nonlinear optical amplifiers introduce noise into the amplified beam.1 For example, a phase- conjugate mirror (PCM) generates light that exhibits excess quantum noise that is inherent to the phase-conjugation process.2 Additional noise may result from fluctuations (e.g., collisions) in the nonlinear medium.3 The total noise generated during the phase-conjugation process determines the minimum signal that can be phase conjugated for a specified value of the signal-to-noise ratio. The only previous experimental work that has addressed the issue of phase conjugation of weak beams is that of Andreev et al.4 who demonstrated that it is possible to perform phase conjugation with a pulsed beam containing 30 photons. Their system is based on Brillouin-enhanced four- wave mixing with an optical preamplifier.
© 1996 Optical Society of America
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