MECHANISM OF SELF-PUMPED PHASE-CONJUGATION BY NEAR-FORWARD STIMULATED SCATTERING OF HETEROGENEOUS LASER-BEAMS IN NEMATIC LIQUID-CRYSTAL

The conditions of self-pumped phase conjugation of an Nd:YAG laser beam with a heterogeneous space structure by stimulated thermal scattering in a nematic liquid crystal layer with a mirror are investigated experimentally and theoretically. It is shown that phase conjugation by near-forward simultaneous scattering of two laser beams (incident and mirror-reflected) is realized when the diffraction length of the pumping beam is comparable with the nonlinear layer thickness and the incidence angle is less than the diffraction divergence angle.