Collisional absorption of dense plasmas in strong laser fields

Collisional absorption of dense fully ionized plasmas in strong laser fields is investigated using quantum kinetic theory as well as molecular dynamics simulations. Quantum statistical calculations are presented for the important case of a two-temperature plasma. Comparision is given to molecular dynamics simulations. Special attention is devoted to the question of how to treat properly the attractive electron–ion interaction for short ranges in classical molecular dynamics simulations.