Abstract. The interaction of an ultrashort laser pulse with a two-level collision system is investigated. An increased overall photon efficiency of ultrashort pulses is confirmed in many cases by the calculation. The dependence of the excitation process on duration, intensity and shape of the laser pulse is studied on the basis of calculations with the classical-path method. Realistic potentials modeling the XS---~AII transition in Na--Ar are employed. Numerical trajectories were generated on these potentials that either switch at the Condon points from the ground state to the excited state or are propagated on the average potential. The role of the nonresonant excitation of free atoms is discussed in detail and found to be an important factor accompanying collision pair excitation. However a drastic reduction of this effect occurs when considering the propagation of the pulse through the medium before collision. Parallel computation of related collisions leads to a calculational procedure by which the necessary average over the pulse onset time is performed efficiently.