Stimulated light scattering in transparent liquid particles: effect of theDescartes ring

We consider some peculiarities of the evolution of processes of stimulated scattering in liquid transparent particles in the presence of ponderomotive action of a light field. We observed the occurrence of sharp deformations in the Descartes ring zone, which exceeds by more than 1 order of magnitude the deformations of the remaining particle surface. Investigation of the d ynamics of the evolution of droplet deformations has made it possible to co nsider these deformations as the main cause of suppression of stimulated sc attering indicated in the experiments. An analytical expression was derived to evaluate the decrease of the Q factor of droplet quasi-normal eigenmode s caused by perturbation of the particle shape from the spherical. Our stud y revealed that the larger the Q factor of the droplet eigenmodes, the grea ter the influence of surface deformation. (C) 2000 Optical Society of Ameri ca OCIS codes: 190.3970, 290.5850, 290.5890, 290.5900, 290.5910.