An experiment was performed to measure the total impulse transferred to a surface by a high‐power pulsed 10.6‐&mgr; laser under atmospheric conditions, and also to determine the degree to which the observed plasma decouples the laser energy from the surface. Specific interest was directed toward conditions under which a ``radiation‐driven detonation wave'' may form due to the presence of a surface. The momentum transferred in dyn sec/J decreases with an increase in the ratio of incident energy to spot area since a larger fraction of the energy is decoupled from the surface.