Stimulated Raman scattering in the presence of suprathermal ion acoustic fluctuations in inhomogeneous plasma

Abstract

In this report a complex Raman scattering event against a background of nonthermal ion coustic waves in an inhomogenous plasma is considered. The complex Raman process is a five-wave interaction in which three-wave stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) is accompanied by the decay of the Raman Langmuir wave into either a second Langmuir wave (LD) or a second scattered light wave (ED) and an ion acoustic wave. An extension of Stokes’ theory is used to obtain expressions for the gain in the Raman Langmuir and scattered waves. It is shown that only very modest levels of ion waves are needed to produce duce a significant effect on the net Raman convective gain which proves to be sensitive to the source levels of the amplifying waves. For LD the gain from the Raman Langmuir wave source is suppressed while that from the secondary Langmuir wave is enhanced such that the net gain is increased or decreased depending on which of the two sources is greater. When the source levels of both Langmuir waves are at thermal levels, opposing effects mean no net change in the gain factor irrespective of the ion acoustic wave amplitude. For ED the gain is invariably suppressed for any source distributions. Two possible regimes of an enhanced effect have been identified: exact sidescattering for ED and the supersonic point vicinity for LD(ED). The theory thus provides a possible explanation for a variety of the observed effects in the interplay between SRS and stimulated Brillouin scattering, both of concern in laser fusion schemes.