  This work investigates the utility of femtosecond pulse shaping in increasing
the efficiency of Raman excitation of molecules in the strong-field interaction
regime. We study experimentally and theoretically the effect of pulse shaping
on the strength of non-resonant coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering in iodine
vapor at laser intensities exceeding $10^{13}$ W/cm$^2$. We show that unlike
the perturbative case, shaping strong non-resonant laser pulses can increase
the signal strength beyond that observed with the transform-limited excitation.
Both adiabatic and non-adiabatic schemes of excitation are explored, and the
differences of their potential in increasing the excitation efficiency are
discussed.
