Compensation of wavefront distortions in a thick inhomogeneous medium

An analysis is made of the process of compensation of those wavefront distortions which arise during propagation of signal radiation through a thick inhomogeneous medium. An allowance is made for the conversion efficiency. Estimates of a satisfactory reconstruction quality are obtained for the case when the refractive index is a quadratic function of the transverse coordinate. The results are reported of an experiment in which wavefront distortions were compensated after two-pass amplification of signal radiation and its transmission along a single-mode fiber. A conversion efficiency of the order of unity was achieved in a nonlinear gallium arsenide crystal. The gain was about 11 when the resolution of the compensation system was 8 lines/mm.