EFFECT OF WAVE DAMPING ON THE NONLINEAR SATURATION OF STIMULATED RAMAN-SCATTERING IN A FINITE HOMOGENEOUS PLASMA

A question of stationarity of a nonlinear saturated regime of stimulat ed Raman backscattering in a finite homogeneous plasma is considered. Slowly varying envelope equations with the damping and the nonlinear f requency shift terms included are treated numerically. It is demonstra ted by a space-time simulation of these equations that the variation i n the damping rate drives the system through various dynamical regimes (from steady-state to chaotic). A simplified, space-only approach, ba sed on the use of a numerical shooting method was applied to calculate the critical damping values corresponding to transitions between stat ionary and nonstationary saturated regimes. The corresponding bifurcat ion diagrams that enable prediction of the type of asymptotic behaviou r of Raman instability are obtained and discussed.