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(IF/P-01) Studies of Stimulated Raman Scattering in Laser Plasma Interactions

A. Bers¹⁾, A. Salcedo¹⁾, R.J. Focia¹⁾, A.K. Ram^1)
 
1) Plasma Science and Fusion Center, M.I.T., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Abstract.  Coupled theoretical and computational work is presented aimed at understanding and modeling stimulated Raman backscattering (SRBS) in large-scale, nearly homogeneous plasmas relevant to laser-plasma interactions (LPIs) in gas-filled hohlraums. In particular, we focus on experimental parameters and results from recent LPI studies of SRBS on the TRIDENT laser facility at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where a preformed plasma was illuminated with a nearly diffraction-limited single hot spot (SHS) laser to simulate LPIs in a single speckle of a high intensity laser beam. With the aid of a new code for simulating and studying the nonlinear coupling in space-time of a large number of modes, and a Vlasov-Maxwell code for studying the evolution of large amplitude electron plasma waves, we report results and their interpretations to elucidate the following five observed, nonlinear phenomena associated with SRBS: coupling of SRBS to Langmuir decay interactions (LDIs); cascading of LDI; effect of ion-acoustic damping on SRBS; SRS cascades; and stimulated electron acoustic wave scattering.

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