Atomic kinetics of matter irradiated by intense laser fields

The atomic kinetics of solid density low-Z material under an intense oscillating laser field is presented. The transient behavior of the average ionization and the heating mechanism is analyzed. Temporal oscillations in excited configurations populations caused by the laser field oscillations are demonstrated. These phenomena present a method for creating short, 1-100 fs, monochromatic but incoherent x-ray pulses and for measuring basic atomic rates.