Abstract

Nearly-degenerate four-wave mixing in laser oscillators has attracted much recent attention.[1-4] In laser diodes, the interaction has usually been described by models emphasizing the spatial dependence of the nonlinear coupling.[2] Alternatively, injection locking of laser diodes is most often described by models emphasizing the optical resonance of the laser cavity and the time dependence of the interaction.[5] Both situations, however, represent nearly identical experimental configurations and little effort has been made to connect the two pictures. Recent four-wave mixing experiments in an argon-ion laser have been modeled using the lumped-circuit rate-equation formalism[3] and an earlier rate-equation analysis was shown to be consistent with laser diode four-wave mixing data.[4]

© 1992 Optical Society of America