Abstract
A non-steady-state theory of stimulated light scattering, which places particular emphasis on the effects induced in the scattering medium, is developed. It is shown that a spatial modulation of the dielectric constant is induced whose amplitude and phase can be expressed in terms of simple convolution integrals. These involve only the input pulse shape, the steady-state scattering spectrum and the frequency shift between the laser and scattered beams. The effect of the induced modulation on the scattered beam and on any weak independent beam incident at the Bragg angle is also considered.