Effect of Ion-Wave Damping on Stimulated Raman Scattering in High-<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi mathvariant="italic">Z</mml:mi></mml:math>Laser-Produced Plasmas

The dependence of the magnitude of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) on ion-wave damping has been demonstrated in a high- $Z$ plasma. The ion-wave damping is varied in a well characterized Xe plasma by varying the concentration of a ${\mathrm{C}}_{5}$${\mathrm{H}}_{12}$ impurity. The reflectivity of SRS is observed to increase with the concentration of the dopant, demonstrating the effect of ion-wave damping on SRS. The measurements are consistent with models in which the amplitude of the SRS-driven Langmuir waves are limited by a secondary decay into ion-acoustic waves.