The paper deals with the effect of electron emission on a heat transfer in the area of a plasma critical density (near plasma‐solid surface boundary). As is known, experimental data show the limitation of electron thermal conductivity in the mentioned area. In the laser fusion research just the limitation of the heat transfer at target irradiation with long‐wave lasers has made application of CO2‐lasers unreasonable in spite of their high efficiency. On other hand, as to the applied tasks of laser ablation (e.g. in launching small‐scale satellites) the aspect of the CO2‐lasers application is being widely discussed. In the paper the mentioned limitation is explained on the basis of classical representations. It is marked, that the heat transfer limitations arise from the conditions of preserving plasma quasi‐neutrality at the absorption area boundary where the electron density is close to critical one for the given laser wavelength. Possible mechanisms of the electron emission in the mode of the laser ablation are discussed. © 2004 American Institute of Physics