Experimental study of stimulated Brillouin scattering by broad-band pumping

A XeCl laser system has been used to investigate stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) cyclohexane and methanol with laser radiation of spectral width Delta nu /sub p/ much larger than the bandwidth of the excited acoustic wave Delta nu /sub a/. The reflectivity and the phase conjugation (PC) fidelity of the SBS reflector versus pump intensity and bandwidth have been measured. It is shown experimentally that the PC fidelity and the reflectivity are strongly dependent on the pump spectral width and intensity. However, the experimental results show that the use of a liquid SBS reflector is still effective for correcting the spatial aberrations of laser radiation with Delta nu /sub p/ approximately=30 Delta nu /sub a/ in a double-pass amplifier. >