Energy transfer from laser pulses to electrons in solids is a key quantity to understand laser materials processing. We have been developing a first-principles computational approach based on ab initio time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) that has been made public as a software SALMON. Combining microscopic calculation of electronic motion by TDDFT and mesoscopic light-propagation calculation by Maxwell equations, ab initio evaluation of energy transfer is feasible in nanometer and femtosecond spatio-temporal resolution. Using the method, systematic calculations are under way for several distinct materials including metals, semiconductors, and large-gap insulators, for a wide range of laser intensities.
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