Abstract

Coherent four-photon spectroscopy [1] has long proved to be a convenient and efficient method for a diagnostics of excited and ionized gases and plasmas [2]. However, an essential part of the information on a plasma remains hidden as long as an adequate method for local remote measurements of electric fields in plasmas is not found. In this paper, we will demonstrate that the polarization technique of coherent Raman scattering (CRS) allows a local measurement of dc electric fields in molecular gases and permits one to extract the information concerning the form of the relevant nonlinear-optical susceptibility tensor and the invariants of the Raman scattering tensor for Raman-active transitions of atoms and molecules.

© 2000 IEEE