Nonlinear kinetic description of Raman growth using an envelope code, and comparisons with Vlasov simulations

In this paper, we present our nonlinear kinetic modeling of stimulated Raman scattering in a uniform and collisionless plasma using envelope equations. We recall the derivation of these equations, as well as our theoretical predictions for each of the nonlinear kinetic terms, the precision of which having been carefully checked against Vlasov simulations. We particularly focus here on the numerical resolution of these equations, which requires the additional concept of "self-optimization" that we explain, and we describe the envelope code BRAMA that we used. As an application of our modeling, we present one-dimensional BRAMA simulations of stimulated Raman scattering which predict threshold intensities, as well as time scales for Raman growth above threshold, in very good agreement with those inferred from Vlasov simulations. Finally, we discuss the differences between our modeling and other published ones. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3494223]