Abstract
An investigation is made of some features of the heating of metals in air by cw laser radiation obliquely incident on the target surfact. It is shown that, for a fixed power, there is an optimal angle of incidence of the radiation polarized in the plane of incidence for which the target is heated to a given temperature in the minimum time. At the optimal angle of incidence, an appreciable improvement in energy transfer may be achieved in the laser heating of various metals. This is confirmed by experiments on the angular dependence of the inflammation time of tungsten.