Studies of reactor designs for inertial fusion energy (IFE) have indicated that some of the material requirements can be alleviated if the target chamber is filled with a low-pressure inert gas (<1 Torr). The experiments described in this paper examine the effects of such an ambient gas on the laser-target interactions relevant to laser-driven IFE. These experiments used the Nike KrF laser facility at the Naval Research Laboratory to irradiate uncoated 78 µm thick polystyrene (CH) foil targets at focal intensities around 1014 W cm−2. They compared the laser–target interactions in different inert gases (xenon, argon or krypton) at several ambient pressures up to 1 Torr with that of the vacuum (reference) case. The diagnostics included streaked rear-surface emission at wavelengths 460–540 nm and side-on shadowgraphy at 263 nm. The results of this study were encouraging. In spite of initial concerns about resonantly enhanced nonlinear optical effects in the Xe gas, we found no evidence of laser beam break-up, spreading, or attenuation. The shock breakout profiles (from emitted light) and the front and rear surface plasma profiles (from shadowgraphy) remained smooth and symmetric in all cases. The central shock breakout times, and thus the central laser irradiances, were about the same for the target in an inert gas as in vacuum. Our analysis indicates that the large nonlinear optical processes in atomic Xe are self-limiting because the converging beam ionizes the gas, thereby removing the atoms from the most intense part.