Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 March 2009
A one-dimensional, time-dependent fluid code is presented that numerically solves the hydrodynamic equations together with the wave equation for a picosecond pulse laser heated plasma. The laser light absorption by classical inverse bremsstrahlung and the ponderomotive force are evaluated self-consistently from the computed electromagnetic field quantities. At oblique incidence of p-polarized 1·054 μm laser radiation the resonant electric field is saturated by plasma wave convection through the nonlinear density profile steepening prior to wave breaking.