COMPETITION BETWEEN VIBRATIONAL AND ROTATIONAL RAMAN-SCATTERING IN H-2

A XeCl laser delivering circularly polarised laser pulses with quite l ow beam-quality factor (M-2 congruent to 4) is focused in H-2 to gener ate rotational and vibrational lines by stimulated Raman scattering pr ocesses. The efficiency for generation of the first rotational line S- 01 at 313.7 nm (upsilon = 0, J = 1 --> upsilon = 0, J = 3) is improved by tightly focusing the pump beam in the Raman cell as a consequence of vibrational Raman gain suppression. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.