The effects of stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) and of infrared (IR) absorption on the scattering at defects leading to atomic migration in solids is evaluated in detail for certain systems.

, where

is the activation energy, u
icis the many-body critical displacement in a migration event, and

is the equal-time correlation function including anharmonic terms. Using the equal-time correlation for the defect lattice in the harmonic approximation, we get
![\\Delta E/kT_{eff} \\propto 1/\\sum h[2(n_{s} + n_{e}) + 1]](/images/tex/1621.gif)
where T
effincludes both n
eand n
sthe externally and thermally excited phonon numbers, respectively. The phonon rate density required for an observable effect of SRS or IR absorption on diffusion in solids is

phonons/s.cm
2, where

is a critical number of high wave-vector laser-stimulated phonons, c
s, is the sound velocity, and V, the volume per atom. In KCI at 110 K, theory shows that

can produce a factor of 10 effect on the reorientation of Na:F
Acenters. Anharmonic effects on

were calculated and numerical estimates indicate that they would be experimentally observable for large n
e. It is found that some of the effects reported here probably contribute, in part, to the permanent damage tracks caused by high-power laser beams in solids and provide an internal source for the initiation of microcracks. In addition, the direction of the stimulated phonon wave vector is shown to produce a directional effect in the control of atomic migration.