Observation of stimulated thermal scattering of light upon nonsteady-state interaction between a laser pulse and a medium

The induced thermal scattering of light has been experimentally investigated for short laser pulses of different durations. It is shown that the observed anomalously large anti-Stokes shift (Ω ≫ 1/(2πτ), where τ is the thermal grating relaxation time) in the reflected signal depends on the pump pulse duration.