This paper presents a study of the self‐focusing of a high‐power non‐Gaussian laser beam operating in TEM01mode in a strongly ionized plasma. The nonlinearity in the dielectric constant is caused by the nonuniform redistribution of carriers due to their inhomogeneous heating by the laser beam having transverse variation of intensity along its wave front. It is found that when the power of the beam exceeds the critical power, focusing effects are observed in theYdirection, whereas divergence of the beam takes place in theXdirection. In the reverse case (whenP<Pcr) the normalized beam‐width parameterf2first increases in theYdirection, after penetrating a certain depth it reaches a broadened maxima and then starts decreasing with the distance of propagation inside the medium. The beam continues diverging in theXdirection. It has also been found that absorption brings about a reduction in the extent of self‐focusing. When the absorption length is less than the self‐focusing length appreciable self‐focusing does not take place.