Effects of inner electrons on atomic strong-field ionization dynamics

The influence of inner electrons on the ionization dynamics in strong laser fields is investigated in a wavelength regime where the inner electron dynamics is usually assumed to be negligible. The role of inner electrons is of particular interest for the application of frozen-core approximations and pseudopotentials in time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) and the single-active-electron (SAE) approximation in strong-field laser physics. Results of TDDFT and SAE calculations are compared with exact ones obtained by the numerical ab initio solution of the three-electron time-dependent Schrödinger equation for a lithium model atom. It is found that dynamical anti-screening, i.e., a particular form of dynamical core polarization, may substantially alter the ionization rate in the single-photon regime. Requirements for the validity of the approximations in the single and multiphoton ionization domain are identified.