Raman sidescatter instability in a nonuniform plasma

In the various laser-fusion concepts, an intense electromagnetic wave (the laser) must propagate through an under-dense plasma region where it could decay, via the stimulated Raman instability, into a Langmuir plasma wave and a scattered electromagnetic wave. This process could, therefore, scatter a significant fraction of the laser energy before it could be deposited in the plasma. A density gradient, in the direction of laser incidence, localizes the instability to a narrow resonance zone where the local plasma wave frequency approximately equals the difference-frequency between the incident and scattered electromagnetic waves. The narrowness of this zone can strongly inhibit the growth of back- or oblique-scattered electromagnetic waves since they quickly propagate out of their resonance region; however, the density gradient has a much weaker effect on side-scattered waves (which propagate perpendicular to the density gradient) since they remain in their resonance zone until refraction bends them out or they exit through the side of the finite diameter laser beam. Thus, we place particular emphasis on evaluating, in a manner valid for the side scattered electromagnetic waves (which are at their turning point), the level of exponentiation at which the growth is linearly saturated due to convection of the waves out of their resonance zone. We also determine the general nature and propagation of the scattered electromagnetic waves and obtain approximate values for the resonance zone size and the time required for the above saturation