  We analyze the full nonlinear dynamics of the four-wave mixing between an
incident beam of fermions and a fermionic density grating. We find that when
the number of atoms in the beam is comparable to the number of atoms forming
the grating, the dephasing of that grating, which normally leads to a decay of
its amplitude, is suppressed. Instead, the density grating and the beam density
exhibit large nonlinear coupled amplitude oscillations. In this case four-wave
mixing can persist for much longer times compared to the case of negligible
back-action. We also evaluate the efficiency of the four-wave mixing and show
that it can be enhanced by producing an initial density grating with an
amplitude that is less than the maximum value. These results indicate that
efficient four-wave mixing in fermionic alkali gases should be experimentally
observable.

Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;Statistical Mechanics