Effect of Filamentation of Brillouin Scattering in Large Underdense Plasmas Irradiated by Incoherent Laser Light

Abstract
An experimental study of stimulated Brillouin backscatter (B-SBS), produced in a large "homogeneous" underdense plasma using induced spatially incoherent laser light, is presented. The observations reveal that a strong correlation exists between the level of B-SBS and laser filamentation. It is suggested that a filamentory model of B-SBS is needed to better describe the scattering process under conditions of high laser irradiance and large plasma scale lengths.