310) 317-5000 (310) 317-5483 (FAX) Ordinary self-pumped phase conjugate mirrors E M S ) that employ stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) turn on when the gain exponent (G = gTL) is in the range of 25 to 30.Feedback makes it possible to reduce this threshold gain considerably. A number of theories have been developed to describe SBS with feedback, most of which are specific to highly aberrated pump beams and steady-state conditions. These theories predict that by introducing feedback the gain threshold can be reduced to as little as G,=0.35 [ll. Recently, Scott [21 proposed a theory of SBS with feedback that departs from previous theoretical approaches.First, it specifically focuses on Gaussian beams. Second, it explicitly recognizes that the nonlinear medium has a finite response time; consequently the evolution of the nonlinear process is limited by the finite duration of the pump pulse. Although these theoretical features provide new insights into SBS with feedback, further analysis is required to bring the theory into agreement with our measurements, some of which were motivated by discussions with Scott.We performed several experiments involving SBS with feedback using focused, nearly diffraction-limited pump beams. Figure 1 shows two variations of the loop arrangement for SBS with 100% feedback in which the first-pass transmitted pump beam is recycled and c CH, d l I