Stimulated Brillouin scattering in picosecond time scales: Experiments and modeling

This paper presents an experimental and theoretical study of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in laser produced plasma using a laser pump with a duration of 8–10 psec. The experiments were performed in a preformed plasma to minimize the flow velocity and have the same plasma conditions over a large range of laser intensities. The reflectivity was then compared to theoretical results over an intensity range of 1013–2×1015 W/cm2. A short pulse was used so that the SBS was in the temporally growing regime and saturation was not an issue.