Theory and simulation of stimulated Brillouin scatter excited by nonabsorbed light in laser fusion systems

The noise spectrum from which stimulated Brillouin scatter grows has two sources in laser fusion plasmas; a broadband source due to ion-acoustic fluctuations, and a line source, usually much larger, which is the nonabsorbed light returning from the plasma critical surface. We give a theoretical description of stimulated Brillouin backscatter when the fluctuation source may be neglected and the scatter grows exclusively from the nonabsorbed light. Gradients of background density, velocity, and temperature are allowed. Theoretical predictions are compared to numerical simulations of scatter for parameters of recent experiments. It is found that stimulated Brillouin scatter can be greatly enhanced by the presence of a critical surface and that it can become an important part of the total energy balance.