Theory of laser-materials damage by enhanced stimulated Raman scattering

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
An analysis indicates that Raman‐active crystals fail at intensities If which are greater than the enhanced stimulated Raman‐scattering threshold intensity IR by an amount IT that is generally of the order of or less than IR. A typical value of IR at the ruby frequency is a few gigawatts per square centimeter, which is less than other intrinsic‐mechanism thresholds. At intensities I≳IR, the excess intensity I−IR is converted into Stokes radiation and phonons in a distance l≪d, where d is the thermal diffusion distance for a 10‐nsec pulse. The temperature rise from the rapidly thermalized phonons in the volume x<d is sufficient to cause material failure when I≳If.