Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T08:39:49.905Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Stimulated Raman scattering in plasmas produced by short intense laser pulses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2009

H.C. Barr
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, England CO4 3SQ
T.J.M. Boyd
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, England CO4 3SQ
F.I. Gordon
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, England CO4 3SQ
S.J. Berwick
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, England CO4 3SQ

Abstract

Stimulated Raman scattering driven by intense subpicosecond laser drivers is analyzed, in particular, the effects of the pulse shape and relativity on the instability and its characteristic spectra. The analysis is carried out in the pulse group velocity frame (Lorentz transformed) where growth rates for backscattering are decreased relative to their values when analyzed in the laboratory frame, while forward-scattered growth rates have greatly enhanced values. A range of intensities and densities is considered, appropriate to recent experiments, which ranges from strongly coupled scattering at high densities (even for forwardscattering) to stimulated Compton scattering regimes for backscattering and relativistically trapped forwardscattering at low densities. The inhomogeneities in intensity and density cause mode conversion between waves inside and outside the pulse. This can be at a modest level, as for backscattering, or extreme as in the case of forwardscattering when the Raman scattered light can be trapped within the laser pulse. The consequent feedback between modes within the pulse allows solutions, absolutely growing in the pulse frame, to be found.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Akhiezer, A.I. & Polovin, R.V. 1956 Soviet Physics JETP 3, 696.Google Scholar
Darrow, C.B. et al. 1992 Phys. Rev. Lett. 69, 442.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinstrie, C.J. & Bingham, R. 1989 Phys. Fluids B 1, 230.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinstrie, C.J. & Bingham, R. 1992 Phys. Fluids B 4, 2626.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mori, W.B. 1994 Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 1482.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Najmudin, Z. et al. 1994 Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Annual Report RAL-94–042,23.Google Scholar
Rosenbluth, M.N. 1972 Phys. Rev. Lett. 29, 565.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sakharov, A.S. & Kirsanov, V.I. 1994 Phys. Rev. E 49, 3274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tripathi, V.K. & Liu, C.S. 1991 Phys. Fluids B 3, 468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar