Injection locking and mode switching of a diode laser with a double phase-conjugate mirror

Abstract

We present the experimental results of efficient and alignment-free injection locking of a 0.8-μm diode laser with a mutually pumped phase conjugator. After the slave laser is injection locked, the reflectivity of the double conjugate mirror decreases considerably. The injection-locked state continued for more than 20 min in spite of a decrease in reflectivity. When the frequency of the injecting beam is resonant to one of the slave laser's modes that does not oscillate in the free-running state, mode switching is observed; i.e., the oscillating mode jumps to a new mode that matches the injecting beam.