Spatiotemporal Evolution of Stimulated Raman Scattering in the Absolute and Convective Regimes

A three-wave interaction (3WI) code is developed to study the stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in both absolute and convective regimes. In the simulations, the time and spatial evolutions of a plasma wave are described by temporal growth rate and spatial factor, respectively. The spatial factors in different phases and different instability regimes are investigated. It is found that the spatial factor is caused by the finite velocity of the pump wave in the first phase and by damping in the last phase. With inclusion of the spatial factor, the temporal growth rate decreases and the threshold for SRS for a finite frequency mismatch increases. Meanwhile, the effects of wave frequency mismatch on the temporal growth rate are also discussed. (basic plasma phenomena)