This study is motivated by recent applications of short laser pulses to the manipulation of atomic structures at the atomic scale and is based on the Density Functional Theory. The structures considered are linear monoatomic chains, formed by covalent and metallic atoms, and the calculations illustrate their evolution under laser irradiation. The calaculations show that the modification of the chain structure spans from a slight relaxation of the interatomic distances to fragmentation and illustrate the times and energies needed to induce those changes.