Stimulated scattering of light in an active medium with overheating–ionization and vibrational–thermal instabilities

Transient stimulated scattering increments are derived and investigated for various ranges of instability of a saturable radiation beam and under various conditions of heat evolution in an active medium. An allowance is made for the influence of a vibrational–thermal instability of the medium and for an overheating–ionization instability of a discharge on the stimulated scattering characteristics. The stimulated scattering gain is considered for temperature waves and for inversion waves. Estimates are obtained of the increments and characteristic scales of the radiation instability in inverted CO₂ laser mixtures.