Diode-pumped Nd:YAG loop resonator with phase conjugation in the gain medium

Summary form only given. We present an approach to obtain self-starting loop resonators with phase conjugation by four-wave mixing (FWM) in the gain medium. This phase-conjugate process presents attractive features such as self-matching nonlinearity with the laser wavelength and high efficiency because of the laser amplification of all the interacting beams. We will present a fully detailed analysis of the specific properties of such resonators and compare their performances with that of laser architectures that use the other types of solid-state phase-conjugate techniques mentioned above. It will be shown that resonators with phase conjugation in the gain medium demonstrate reasonable extraction efficiency together with dynamic compensation of intracavity phase aberrations, and that they offer a number of desirable properties such as self-Q-switching ability, single-longitudinal-mode operation, and compensation of polarization distortions via vector phase conjugation.