Observations of Stimulated-Brillouin Scattering Initiated by Ponderomotive Force Density Fluctuations

Abstract

This Letter reports the first observations of stimulated Brillouin scattering in microwave interaction with a plasma, as verified by the satisfaction of the frequency- and wavelength-matching rules and growth rate. A small amount of chamber reflectivity causes ion fluctuations due to the standing-wave ponderomotive force, which then serve as an enhanced noise level for the initiation of the instability.