Abstract

Optical phase conjugation is a process that leads to the correction of wavefront distortions under conditions such that a beam of light passes twice in opposite directions through an aberrating optical medium. Analogously, the state of polarization of an optical beam can become aberrated, (for example, by passing through a stressed optical component), and these polarization aberrations can be removed by the process of polarization conjugation. In polarization conjugation, the polarization unit vector of the incident wave is replaced by its complex conjugate in the generated wave.

© 1988 Optical Society of America