Power lasers and their applications: V.S. Letokhov and N.D. Ustinov Harwood Academic Publishers, 1983, pp viii+128, $42.50

Abstract

Beyond the well-known possibility of image restoration, phase conjugation (PC) has widened its scope of interest to image processing, associative memory, laser frequency stabilization through optical phase locking, and oscillation in various types of new laser cavities. The most widely used technique to generate PC is to degenerate four-wave mixing (FWM) on a nonlinear medium owing a third-order susceptibility. It is the very nature of the material in which wave-mixing takes place that governs the performances of the phase conjugator device. The microscopic properties of the nonlinear material are of such crucial importance that FWM is currently used for laser spectroscopy and is notably a powerful tool in the time-resolved domain. Effective applications of optical phase conjugation (OPC) require the determination of materials that are the most convenient for specific purposes. OPC through FWM has been illustrated in this chapter in a large variety of nonlinear materials. In the pulsed regime, nonresonant dense media can provide reasonable efficiencies. The wavelength range is large and essentially limited by absorption while the maximum acceptable input power is limited by the damage threshold.