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

Abstract
Experiments using 1.5 kJ of 0.26-μm wavelength light to irradiate thin "burn-through" targets show less stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) than similar experiments at 0.53 μm. 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.