Evidence for Collisional Damping in High-Energy Raman-Scattering Experiments at 0.26 μm

Abstract

Experiments using 1.5 kJ of 0.26-\ensuremath{\mu}m wavelength light to irradiate thin "burn-through" targets show less stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) than similar experiments at 0.53 \ensuremath{\mu}m. The SRS from high-$Z$ (Au) targets is 3 orders of magnitude less than SRS from low-$Z$ (CH) targets irradiated at similar intensities. These results are the first direct observation of collisional damping of the Raman instability in high-$Z$ targets as predicted by theory and simulations.