Theory of stimulated Raman scattering with broad-band lasers

Abstract

The authors have extended the theory of stimulated Raman scattering to include the effects of laser bandwidths, in both the transient and steady-state regimes. The case of two interacting laser beams, a pump laser and a probe (Stokes) laser, is treated. Using the phase-diffusion model for laser bandwidth, the authors demonstrate that in the absence of dispersion, the forward Raman gain is essentially independent of the laser bandwidths in the high-gain limit, while in the low-gain limit the gain coefficient is inversely proportional to the sum of the bandwidths. It is further shown that when the pump-laser bandwidth is much larger than the linewidth of the Raman medium, the stimulated Stokes output assumes the same spectrum as the pump laser in the high-gain limit. A possible interpretation of these results is discussed assuming a "phase-locking" of the Stokes phase to the fluctuations in the pump-laser phase, due to the nonlinear interaction of the two beams through the Raman medium.