Abstract

Backward stimulated Raman scattering (BSRS) has been widely used as an efficient method for generation of high energy short laser pulses [1], In BSRS the Stokes field continuously encounters undepleted incoming pump light, and its front can be amplified to a value many times higher than the pump intensity, resulting in pulse compression. In the presence of linear loss this process can stabilize, giving rise to a solitary wave. This occurs because build-up of the stationary gain develops within a finite time determined by the phase relaxation time 'T₂ of the Raman transition. Therefore, solitary wave fonnation is directly related to the transient (coherent) Raman effects occurring at times t < T₂. So far, this phenomenon has been difficult to study because, in a focused geometry, BSRS is typically accompanied by laser beam self-focusing and competing forward SRS.

© 2009 IEEE