Abstract
The hydrodynamic flow of laser-produced plasmas has been modelled by means of a one-dimensional Lagrangian code in which the self-consistently calculated inverse Bremsstrahlung absorption and ponderomotive force were used. For normal incidence, this approach enables the transition between two distinct regimes, for the variation of the critical density scale length with irradiance, to be observed. The calculations show that, for experimental conditions relevant to laser fusion there is no marked difference between the density profiles for normal and oblique incidence for irradiances up to 1015 W cm-2.