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Optics Letters

Amplification of a phase-conjugate signal in a nonlinear absorptive Kerr medium

André G. Skirtach, David J. Simkin

Published May 15, 1997• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

We present the results of amplification of the phase-conjugate reflectivity in an absorptive nonlinear Kerr medium by nondegenerate four-wave mixing. The influence of two-beam coupling on the phase-conjugate signal is observed and analyzed. The frequency domain response of nondegenerate four-wave mixing produces a tunable narrow-band optical filter.

DOI
10.1364/ol.22.000673

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This paper presents an exact solution to the slowly varying envelope equations for the probe and signal fluxes in degenerate four-wave mixing in Kerr media. The analysis is performed for a noncollinear geometry, and all beams have the same linear polarization in the nonlinear medium. It is assumed that the angle separating the directions of the counterpropagating pumps and probe and signal beams is large enough so that cross-coupled waves do not contribute to the envelope equations describing the spatial evolution of the pump, probe, and signal beams. Multiple values of the transmitted probe are obtained for equal pump fluxes above a threshold determined by the nonlinear phase shift in the medium. Significant pump depletion occurs in this regime, but it can also occur without the appearance of multiple solutions. Since exact optical phase conjugation occurs only in the limit where the pumps are undepleted in Kerr media, this result implies that there are fundamental upper limits on the pump intensity that can be used to increase signal reflectivities in optical phase conjugation.

Journal of the Optical Society of America B•Nov 1, 1986•11 citations
We present the results of amplification of the phase-conjugate reflectivity in an absorptive nonlinear Kerr medium by nondegenerate four-wave mixing. The influence of two-beam coupling on the phase-conjugate signal is observed and analyzed. The frequency domain response of nondegenerate four-wave mixing produces a tunable narrow-band optical filter.
We have developed a theory for nondegenerate oscillations in optical resonators containing an intracavity phase-conjugate element. The phase-conjugate element consists of a nonlinear transparent medium that is pumped externally by a pair of counterpropagating laser beams of the same frequency and intensity. Phase conjugation of an input beam of slightly different frequency occurs because of nondegenerate four-wave mixing. The theory takes into account linear absorption (or gain) in the medium and is applied to study the threshold behavior of phase-conjugate oscillators. For the special case of no conventional mirrors, the phase-conjugate oscillator reduces to an ordinary phase-conjugate mirror, and our general formulation yields the results of previous studies. Our analysis shows that the parametric gain required for oscillation increases (or decreases) as a result of linear absorption (or gain) in the medium, and oscillation can occur at a frequency different from that of the pump beams in the presence of large linear gain (or loss). The effects of linear absorption (or gain) on the filter operation are also examined.
We have shown previously that two strong laser beams (with the same frequency) counterpropagating in a Kerr nonlinear medium with linear dispersion become un stable when their intensities exceed a certain threshold.1 We demonstrate here that the system exhibits large (theoretically unlimited) amplification of a probe beam when the two pumping beams have their intensities slightly below the threshold. This is in contrast to the conventional phase conjugation due to four-wave mixing in a nondispersive Kerr nonlinear medium. The mechanism of amplification in our system can be explained in terms of positive distributed feedback from the Kerr nonlinear index grating formed by two strong pumping laser beams in the presence of dispersion giving rise to a light-induced distributed-feedback resonator. This feedback is attributed to the fact that the weak beams with both signal frequency, ω + δ, and conjugate frequency, ω − δ, propagate with phase speed different (due to dispersion) from that of a pumping wave with frequency ω, which triggers the exponentially increasing energy exchange between weak and strong beams at the nonlinear index grating (this energy exchange is prohibited in nondispersive media). When the probe frequency approaches a frequency of one of the longitudinal modes of the light-induced distributed resonator, and the pumping intensity approaches the threshold of instability, the resonant amplification increases infinitely; for presently available laser intensity stabilities, amplification as large as 104 is feasible.
The solution of the nondegenerate two-wave-mixing problem in an absorptive Kerr medium including the contribution from nonlinear absorption is obtained for the first time to our knowledge. This solution enables us to analyze the influence of nonlinear absorption on the two-wave-mixing gain and account for previously unexplained results reported for ruby and Cr3+:YAlO3. The effect of nonlinear absorption of a pump beam on the gain of a probe beam is shown to be minimized when incident intensities of the interacting beams are equal. The intensity dependence of the two-wave-mixing gain for dispersive (ruby and Cr3+:YAlO3) media and the gain measurements for absorptive (fluorescein-doped glass) media are also in agreement with the new theory.
We consider degenerate four-wave mixing in a Kerr medium with a standard noncollinear geometry and the polarization directions of all the beams parallel to one another. The two pump beams, the probe beam, and the phase-conjugate beam are denoted by the subscripts 1,2,4 and 3, respectively. The nonlinear medium is placed between z = 0 and z = 1; the values of the intensities of the beams at z = 0 and 1 are denoted by Ii0 andIi1, where i = 1,2,3,4. Beams 2 and 4 are incident at z = 1; and beam 1 is incident at z = 0. We have determined the dependence of the phase-conjugate reflectivity R = I31/I41 and the pump transmission T = I11/I10 on the following parameters: the probe ratio, q=I41/(I10 + I21); the pump ratio, r = I21/I 1 0; the absorption coefficient–path length product, al; and the coupling constant of the medium, q. In the absence of nonlinear refraction, pump depletion, and linear absorption in the medium, R = tan2q. When all of these effects are taken into account, the maximum value of R is given by Rmax = exp (-2α1)/(q(1 + r)). The minimum value that T can reach is proportional to q for q < 1. Even for small values of q, multistable solutions for R and T are obtained when q is greater than a threshold value, which we denote by qth. We have determined the dependence of qth on the parameters q and r.
The exact theory of degenerate four-wave mixing in a Kerr-like medium in the Bragg scattering regime is used to study the reflectivity of phase-conjugate mirrors pumped by intense laser beams. The analysis takes into account pump depletion, nonlinear phase modulation and the relaxation time of the nonlinearity. The steady-state response exhibits multivalued reflectivity, hysteresis and potential bistability; however, the transient response shows that at most one value of the phase-conjugate reflectivity is stable. Periodic or chaotic pulsations are predicted beyond threshold values of pump intensity. The onset of a natural oscillation in the Kerr-like medium is also predicted in the absence of a continuous probe beam; the resulting field amplitude is stable and weakly sensitive upon the presence of external noise.
This paper presents an exact solution to the slowly varying envelope equations for the probe and signal fluxes in degenerate four-wave mixing in Kerr media. The analysis is performed for a noncollinear geometry, and all beams have the same linear polarization in the nonlinear medium. It is assumed that the angle separating the directions of the counterpropagating pumps and probe and signal beams is large enough so that cross-coupled waves do not contribute to the envelope equations describing the spatial evolution of the pump, probe, and signal beams. Multiple values of the transmitted probe are obtained for equal pump fluxes above a threshold determined by the nonlinear phase shift in the medium. Significant pump depletion occurs in this regime, but it can also occur without the appearance of multiple solutions. Since exact optical phase conjugation occurs only in the limit where the pumps are undepleted in Kerr media, this result implies that there are fundamental upper limits on the pump intensity that can be used to increase signal reflectivities in optical phase conjugation.