Stimulated Brillouin scattering of single-mode and weakly inhomogeneous beams

An investigation was made of stimulated Brillouin scattering of single-mode and weakly inhomogeneous beams. It was found that the Stokes beam profile was not similar to that of a Gaussian beam and it had a smaller angular divergence. In the case of weakly inhomogeneous pumping the conversion was efficient in a nonlinear region. The effects could be used for correction of the wavefronts of two-pulse laser radiation.