Abstract

Among the excimer lasers, XeCl has the significant advantage of long lifetime/gas fill. Among the advantages of degenerate four-wave mixing in a saturable amplifier as a phase conjugation technique is the automatic matching of the medium to the laser of interest. The experiments discussed here are the first reporting phase conjugate reflectivity for the XeCl laser by any technique, and the first reported using DFWM in an amplifier in the ultraviolet. The results of the work discussed here are of great interest specifically for the XeCl laser as well as for the more general applicability of the technique. The high net reflectivity observed from the amplifier-mixer is due to the amplification of the probe and signal beams in the non-mixing region of the amplifier as well as to the high intrinsic reflectivity possible from the mixing process.

© 1983 Optical Society of America