IONIZATION AND ENERGY DEPOSITION IN METAL-CLUSTERS IRRADIATED BY INTENSE LASERS

We study the excitation of metal clusters irradiated by intense laser beams, within the framework of a time dependent density functional app roach at fully quantal or semiclassical levels. We focus on ionization processes and energy deposition. It is shown that intense lasers are as efficient as energetic ions to create highly charged clusters, and with comparable deposited ex:citation energy. We also discuss coupling of electronic to ionic degrees of freedom. We finally consider the im portance of accounting for dynamical two-body correlations in the semi classical approximation and discuss second harmonic generation.