The stimulated Raman scattering threshold for a nondiffraction-limited pump beam

The threshold power of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) has been calculated for various nondiffraction-limited pump beams using a numerical model. These calculations were performed for the following pump beam profiles: Gaussian-Hermite, Gaussian-Laguerre, Gaussian-Schell-model (GSM), and several superpositions of Gaussian-Hermite modes. It is shown that the threshold power, for a tightly focused beam, depends on the M/sup 2/ factor, which is a dimensionless factor that compares the divergence of a given beam with the divergence of a (diffraction-limited) Gaussian beam, related to the pump beam quality. The influence of the exact pump beam profile on the threshold is small. It is shown that the measured SRS thresholds in methane for two pump beams, one with an M/sup 2/ of 1.12 and the other with M/sup 2/=8.7, correspond with the calculated thresholds for two GSM beams with the same M/sup 2/.<
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