Amplification of 1 ps Pulse Length Beam by Stimulated Raman Scattering of a 1 ns Beam in a Low Density Plasma

The compression of a laser pulse by amplification of an ultra short pulse beam which seeds the stimulated Raman scatter of the first beam has been long been discussed in the context of solid and gas media. We investigate the possibility of using intersecting beams in a plasma to compress nanosecond pulses to picosecond duration by scattering from driven electron waves. Recent theoretical studies have shown the possibility of efficient compression with large amplitude, non-linear Langmuir waves driven either by SRS [1] or non-resonantly [2]. We describe experiments in which a plasma suitable for pulse compression is created, and amplification of an ultra short pulse beam is demonstrated