Optimum signal polarization in two-wave mixing with incoherent erasure of the fanning process

We present a study of the optimum polarization slates of the pump and signal beams in two-wave mixing amplification using BaTiO3 where the main objective is to improve the performance by reduction of the beam fanning. We demonstrate numerically and experimentally that at low (less than 50) pump-to-signal ratios it is advantageous to use both pump and signal in mixed polarization states with respect to the principal plane of the crystal.