The coupling of stimulated Raman and Brillouin scattering in a plasma

The observation of an anti-Stokes satellite in the spectrum of light backscattered from a CO₂ laser plasma is reported. Its origin is found to be Thomson scattering of the incident light from a counterpropagating mode-coupled plasma wave. The parent electron and ion waves in the mode-coupling process were driven by stimulated Raman and Brillouin backscattering. The parent and daughter plasma waves were detected by ruby laser Thomson scattering. A computer simulation modeling the experiment shows further cascading of the Stokes backscattered light to lower frequencies, apparently a result of its rescattering from another, higher phase velocity, counterpropagating coupled mode. Comparisons with theoretical predictions are presented.