Intracavity resonant degenerate four-wave mixing: bistability in phase conjugation

Abstract

A general formalism is developed to study intracavity phase conjugation through resonant degenerate four-wave mixing. The effects of spatial hole burning, arising from interference of the counterpropagating pump waves, are fully incorporated. The analysis is applied to discuss intracavity phase conjugation in nonlinear media that can be modeled using either a two-level system or a A-type three-level system. In both cases, the phase-conjugate reflectivity exhibits bistability for an appropriate choice of the input parameters. For a two-level system, the tuning characteristics of the Fabry–Perot cavity significantly affect the phase-conjugate spectrum that displays hysteresis when the cavity is detuned from the applied laser frequency.