Phase conjugation of pulsed CO2 laser radiation by four-wave mixing in CCl4

An experimental investigation was made of phase conjugation under conditions of degenerate four-wave interaction of CO₂ laser radiation in carbon tetrachloride as a function of various parameters of the signal radiation and of the experimental geometry. It was found that the conjugation accuracy for a single-mode signal beam with a divergence of 2 mrad was 87%, but when a phase plate introducing a divergence of 70 mrad was used, the accuracy was 77%. The reflection efficiency and the phase conjugation quality depended strongly on the ratio of the energy density of the signal wave to the energy density of the pump wave. An investigation was made of the dependence of the reflection coefficient on the angular mismatch between the counterpropagating pump waves and on the matching of the optical paths of the interacting waves.