Energy characteristics of photothermal vibrational instability at stimulated Raman and Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering in aerosol droplets

The threshold intensity and the combination frequencies for photothermal vibrational instability in high-Q aqueous aerosol droplets in the two-mode regime have been calculated. The selection rules for coupling electromagnetic and temperature modes in a droplet are obtained. A comparative analysis of the threshold excitation intensities of photothermal vibrational instability, stimulated Mandelstam-Brillouin scattering, and stimulated Raman scattering in droplets is performed. It is shown that photothermal vibrational instability in the two-mode regime can be developed at a pump intensity of about 10⁴ W/cm² for droplets with radii of 2–20 μm for a pump wavelength of 0.532 μm. A method of remote measurement of the microphysical droplet parameters from the additional periodic temperature shift of droplet eigenfrequencies in the spectrum of stimulated Raman scattering and lasing is proposed.