Abstract
In principle, high-gain laser amplifiers with negative feedback can perform spatial signal-processing operations analogous to the temporal operations performed by electronic operational amplifiers. In practice, it is difficult to achieve stability (prevent self-oscillation). Stability analysis is difficult because the overall transfer function for such an amplifier is a function not of one but of three frequencies: two spatial and one temporal. In the analysis presented here, an integral-equation formulation that specifically includes finite-lens-aperture effects permits stability analysis in terms of the temporal frequency alone. A Nyquist approach is then used to derive sufficient conditions for stability of a class of laser feedback amplifiers.
© 1986 Optical Society of America
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Kurt Edmund Oughstun
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 3(11) 1876-1884 (1986)
Martin J. Bastiaans
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