Diode-side-pumped Nd:YAG slab laser with self-adaptive resonator

One of the promising however challenging approaches of extraction of near diffraction limited beam from high power lasers is “self-adaptive resonator” concept in which it is exploited the dynamic phase conjugate mirror created inside the gain medium as a result of degenerate four wave mixing process [1-5]. The two groups of self-adaptive resonators based on gain gratings were studied in the past: non-reciprocal ones in which one direction of propagation is enforced due to additional non-reciprocal elements [1-3] and reciprocal resonators, in which the two beams inside cavity travel in counter-propagating directions [4-5].