Effect of Ion-Wave Damping on Stimulated Raman Scattering in High-Z Laser-Produced Plasmas.

The dependence of the magnitude of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) on ion-wave damping has been demonstrated in a high-{ital Z} plasma. The ion-wave damping is varied in a well characterized Xe plasma by varying the concentration of a C{sub 5}H{sub 12} impurity. The reflectivity of SRS is observed to be linear with the concentration of the dopant, demonstrating the effect of ion-wave damping on SRS. The measurements are consistent with models in which the amplitude of the SRS-driven Langmuir waves are limited by a secondary decay into ion-acoustic waves. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}