Effects of laser coherence on coupling efficiency for the double phase-conjugate mirror

We present the results of an experimental study of the effects of laser coherence on the operation of the double phase-conjugate mirror using barium titanate as the nonlinear medium. In our experiment the two input beams that drive the interaction originate from a single helium-neon laser, and the degree of coherence between the input beams at the crystal is varied through the use of a time-dependent phase delay in one of the beam paths. As the two input beams make the transition from being mutually incoherent to mutually coherent, the phase-conjugate reflectivity decreases dramatically and becomes unstable. These results are significant to laser phase-locking applications where changes in the coupling intensity can affect the quality of phase locking.