Two related studies of stimulated Raman scattering will be carried out. One is a study of soliton formation in stimulated Raman scattering induced by pi phase shifts in the Stokes beam. The second is a study of the quantum fluctuations which appear to play a major role in the formation of spontaneous solitons and phase waves and also in the decay of induced solitons. Goals include obtaining quantitative data on the dependence of soliton decay on detuning over a range of pressures and pump intensities, determining whether in the study of spontaneously generated solitons one can monitor the predicted phase waves independently, and determining how much observed quantum frequency fluctuations are influenced by the amplifier as the spontaneous emission quantum field is amplified to a macroscopic level.
