  A new approach for the calculation of collisional inverse bremsstrahlung
absorption of laser light in dense plasmas is presented. Quantum statistical
formalism used allows avoiding {\em ad hoc} cutoffs that were necessary in
classical approaches. Thus, the current method remains reliable for strong
electron-ion interactions. In addition, both the dynamic, field dependent
response and hard electron-ion collisions, are consistently incorporated. The
latter were treated in an average manner as a stopping power that in turn was
cast into a form of a friction force. Here, for the first time a link between
the stopping power and the problem of collisional laser absorption is drawn.
This allows the theories developed for the stopping power calculation, such as
the quantum T-matrix approach, to be applied to the problem of collisional
laser absorption. The new approach accommodates the low- and high-frequency
limits explained in the text and is valid for arbitrary laser field
intensities. A comparison with classical MD simulation is indicative of the
validity of the new method in the wide parameter range tested.
