Cw conical emission: First comparison and agreement between theory and experiment

Experimentally observed near-field and far-field spatial profiles, frequency spectra, and cone angles are in good agreement with numerical computations of a theory that includes Doppler-broadened Raman-gain amplification of Doppler-broadened resonance fluorescence, four-wave mixing, propagational coupling, self-trapping of the pump beam, and diffraction and pump-induced refraction of the new frequencies. The use of a cw laser beam detuned from resonance by only a few gigahertz makes the computational problem tractable, leading to a simple physical model of this spatiotemporal instability.