Self-oscillation of a cavity using a phase-conjugate amplifier: study of the stationary regime

A theoretical study of the stationary regime of a four-wave mixing oscillator inside a cavity is presented. The theory is developed in a situation where the phase-conjugate reflection R/sub c/ is much smaller than 1. To find the intensity emitted by this oscillator, two types of saturation mechanism, pump-beam depletion and atomic saturation, are considered. The principal characteristics of the degenerate oscillation are the following: very-low-threshold, bistable behavior, and phase locking of the oscillating beam on the pump beams. In the nondegenerate case, it is shown that the position of the phase-conjugate medium inside the cavity is an essential parameter to determine the threshold condition. >