Microwave‐driven experiments and particle simulation calculations are presented that models‐polarized laser light incident on a pellet. In the microwave experiments, the incident microwaves are observed to decay into ion and electron waves near the critical density if the microwave power is above a well‐defined threshold. Significant absorption, thermal electron heating, and hot electron generation are observed for microwave powers above a few times threshold. Strong absorption, strong profile modification, strongly heated hot electrons with a Maxwellian distribution, a hot‐electron temperature that increases slowly with power, and a hot‐electron density that is almost constant, are all observed in both the microwave experiments and simulation calculations for high powers. In addition, the thermal electrons are strongly heated for high powers in the microwave experiments.