AbstractWe discuss recent experimental and theoretical results on ultrafast materials dynamics. Intense, femtosecond lasers can deposit energy in a time that is short compared with relaxation processes and can generate extremely large carrier densities that drive bond softening, nonthermal melting, and ablation. In particular, we present optical experiments on electronic softening of coherent phonons in bismuth and x-ray experiments on ultrafast disordering in indium antimonide that probe the bonding of the lattice under successively higher carrier concentrations. We review a number of molecular dynamics simulations and their assumptions, which address nonthermal melting. Large-scale molecular dynamics simulations elucidate the role of void formation in laser ablation.