Coherent Rayleigh scattering in the high intensity regime

Coherent Rayleigh scattering (CRS) is studied in the high intensity regime, where the optical lattice potential approaches the thermal energy of the gas particles. We describe this optical-kinetic process using a 1-D Boltzmann equation with an arbitrary strong optical force and show that in this regime a line shape narrowing phenomenon is predicted and that the signal intensity saturates when complete trapping of particles is reached. We discuss the impact of these processes on the application of coherent Rayleigh scattering as gas phase diagnostic tool. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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