Stimulated Brillouin backscatter in the presence of transverse plasma flow

Three-dimensional simulations show that stimulated Brillouin backscattered (SBS) light can be deflected in a direction opposite to transverse plasma flow. When the backscatter gain occurs predominantly in the region beyond where the incident light is deflected by transverse flow, and when the backscatter gain from the deflected incident light region is detuned from the undeflected incident light region by axial flow gradients, the SBS deflection correlates well with the steering of the incident beam. The level of Brillouin backscatter gain in the presence of transverse flow is less than that in the absence of transverse flow because of convective damping, where ion acoustic waves are swept out of the high intensity regions(s) of a beam.