ACTIVE MEDIUM OF MOLECULAR CO2 AND CO LAS ERS AS A NONLINEAR COMPONENT OF A PHASE-CONJUGATING MIRROR

An experimental study was made of a four-wave interaction, in the acti ve medium itself, of long (10-10(3) mus) pulses emitted by electron-be am-controlled CO2 and CO lasers. Linearly polarised probe radiation fr om a CO2 (CO) laser was directed into the intracavity inverted medium of the laser itself. The radiation reflected back by the active medium was recorded in the near-field and far-field zones. Phase conjugation was confirmed by reconstruction of the spatial pattern of the radiati on field in the near-field zone and of the angular divergence of the r adiation in the far-field zone. The energy coefficient representing ph ase conjugation by reflec-tion reached 2% for the CO2 laser and 0.2% f or the CO laser. The time dependence of the phase-conjugation power co efficient was analysed for the four-wave interaction in inverted media of molecular electron-beam-controlled lasers.