Influence of deformation of the density profile in a laser plasma on the angular characteristics of the scattered radiation at the fundamental frequency of a laser

The angular distribution of CO₂ laser radiation scattered in a plasma was determined. When the power density of the radiation reaching a target was 5 X 10¹⁴ W/cm², the maximum of the distribution shifted anomalously away from the specular reflection angle. A comparison of the experimental data with the results of a numerical modeling demonstrated that this anomaly of the angular distribution of the scattered laser radiation was due to a strong deformation of the plasma density profile in the region where this density was ~ 10¹⁸ cm ^– 3.