OPTIMIZING THE PARAMETERS OF A STIMULATED-BRILLOUIN-SCATTERING COMPRESSOR FOR HIGH-POWER LASER SYSTEMS

This paper discusses the operation of a stimulated-Brillouin-scatterin g (SBS) amplifier in the Stokes-radiation compression regime. A method is proposed for obtaining a stable regime for amplifying a short Stok es pulse by comparing the spatial configuration of the counterpropagat ing beams with the temporal profile of the pump pulse. Design paramete rs are given for an SBS amplifier of a 3-ns Stokes signal using a pump energy of 1.5 kJ and a pulsewidth of about 60 ns, and the layout of a multistage SBS amplifier is shown. (C) 1997 The Optical Society of Am erica. [S1070-9762(97)01312-2].