This bookintended as a guide for scientists and students who have just discovered the field as a new and attractive area of research, and for scientists who have worked in another field and want to join now the subject of laser plasmas. In the first chapter the plasma dynamics is described phenomenologically by a two fluid model and similarity relations from dimensional analysis. Chapter 2 is devoted to plasma optics and collisional absorption in the dielectric and ballistic model. Linear resonance absorption at the plasma frequency and its mild nonlinearities as well as the self-quenching of...