saved me countless hours in the lab and taught me many valuable si Us such as how to keep an ultrahigh vacuum system clean and how to choose a capacitor for a short-pulse circuit. In this dissertation, I have tried to distinguish between things I can claim credit for individually ("I measured ...") and group efforts ("We measured ..."). I depended on Group CLS-5, especially Dr. Toni Taylor, Sue Harper, and Jeff Roberts, to maintain and operate the LABS-I laser. They also provided the measurement of the pulse length. They went out of their way several times to help me when I needed a little extra laser time at the end of the day. Space does not permit listing all the others at LANL who helped in particular situations, discussed my work and theirs, or kept the paperwork flowing so that I could work in the lab, but they are a big part of the reason that Los Alamos is a good place to work. At UNM, Dr. Wilhelm Becker took the time on many occasions to help me understand the theory of ATI and to describe it accurately in my dissertation. I also thank Dr. Thomas Niemczyk of the Chemistry Department for serving on my committee. Finally, I thank Dr. Shih-I Chu for allowing me to use his theoretical results prior to publication, and Dr. George Csanak for correcting the misprint in the paper by Keldysh. IBM and PC-AT are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. Pyrex is a registered trademark of Corning Glass Works.