Nonlinear collisional absorption of laser light in dense, strongly coupled plasmas

We present a new theoretical approach for collisional absorption of laser energy in dense plasmas which accommodates arbitrary frequencies and high intensities of the laser field. We establish a connection between laser absorption by inverse Bremstrahlung and the stopping power. This relation is then applied to include strong correlations beyond the mean field approach. The results show an excellent agreement with molecular dynamics simulations up to very high coupling strength.