Stimulated Raman scattering in non-Maxwellian plasmas

Inverse bremsstrahlung heating of laser-produced plasmas can result in a non-Maxwellian electron distribution function. This leads to a modification of Langmuir wave collisional and Landau damping coefficients and may result in changes in the stimulated Raman scattering threshold and scattered light frequency spectra. The importance of these effects for current laser–plasma interaction experiments is discussed.