Fundamental Studies of Stimulated Raman Scattering and Adaptive Optics on the Basis of Stimulated Light Scattering

Abstract

Some results associated with the fundamental investigations of stimulated scattering of light in various media are reported. A number of problems of adaptive optics based on stimulated scattering is studied. Concrete results of experimental investigations of physically important characteristics of conventional (spontaneous) and stimulated Raman scattering are presented and discussed. Among them are the scattering indicatrix and the relations between the phases of laser radiation incident on a substance and stimulated scattering. These results were first obtained in the G. S. Landsberg Optical Department of the P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Data on excitation sources and the radiation detection technique are systematized. The main characteristics of spontaneous Raman scattering and forward and backward stimulated Raman scattering (energy parameters, pulse duration, pulse shape, divergence, brightness, spectral width, far- and near-field intensity distributions) are presented. The results on dynamic holography, phase conjugation of light in stimulated scattering, and reconstruction and recording of information (images) with the help of amplifying dynamic holograms are presented. The physical mechanisms responsible for the interference field recording and the phase conjugation of pump radiation in stimulated light scattering are discussed. The data on phase conjugation for stimulated scattering excited by picosecond optical pulses and the results associated with the effect of excitation geometry on the optical phase conjugation in the case of stimulated scattering excited by nanosecond pulses are presented.