Electronic and structural response of materials to fast intense laser pulses, including light-induced superconductivity

This is a very brief discussion of some experimental and theoretical studies of materials responding to fast intense laser pulses, with emphasis on those cases where the electronic response and structural response are both potentially important (and ordinarily coupled). Examples are nonthermal insulator-to-metal transitions and light-induced superconductivity in cuprates, fullerenes, and an organic Mott insulator.