Numerical investigation of the effects of smoothing by spectral dispersion on stimulated rotational Raman scattering

Abstract The effect of smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD) on stimulated rotational Raman scattering (SRRS) in air has been investigated both numerically and theoretically. The suppression effect of SSD on SRRS process is verified and it is demonstrated and proposed that the suppression effect is attributed to two aspects: the decreasing of the laser fluence modulation degree and the reducing of Stokes gain coefficient caused by the temporal and spatial variation of the phase of the incident laser pulse. The simulation results show that the SRRS threshold distance can be lengthened by choosing appropriate SSD parameters.