Observations of stimulated Brillouin scattering and enhanced ion wave damping in a z-pinch plasma

Abstract
The backscattered spectrum from short CO2 laser pulses incident upon an overdense z‐pinch plasma has been measured. A clear red shift and an exponential growth in the reflectivity to a saturated value of approximately 4% has been observed. The results suggest the presence of strong damping on the scattering ion wave in the saturation region, consistent with predictions of an ion trapping model.