Self-pumped phase conjugation in a liquid crystal light-valve with tilted feedback mirror

Abstract

Since the first demonstration of four-wave mixing in Kerr nonlinear media, a lot of works have been devoted to the realization of self-pumped phase conjugate mirrors (SPPMC), where a single incident beam generates its own phase conjugate replica through the self-generation of the pump waves. The most popular schemes make use of a photorefractive crystal, either inside a resonator cavity or alone with the pumps contained inside the sample by internal reflection at the crystal faces. Here we show a scheme based on a photorefractive liquid crystal light-valve (LCLV) with tilted feedback mirror. The self-generated waves come from the optical feedback, which induces a self- sustained refractive index grating in the liquid crystal layer.