ON THE MUTUAL INTERACTION OF SELF-FOCUSING AND STIMULATED SCATTERING

The interaction of the light self-focusing and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) in a nonlinear medium is considered. We demonstrate that SBS seeded from the rear surface of the medium can suppress the self-focusing. As a result, a power much larger than the critical one can be transmitted through the crystal. The self-focusing suppression results in enhanced SBS and a transversal laser beam structure modification.