Abstract
The experiments were conducted with a 50‐MW 60‐ns ruby laser to study the variation of plasma temperature with laser flux for a carbon and polyethylene plasma in a purely collisional regime. The plasma temperature showed a φ2/9 dependence on laser flux in the intensity regime 2×1010 to 5×1011 W/cm2. Results are discussed with reference to the scaling laws obtained by different workers in different flux regimes on the basis of collisional and noncollisional absorption.