Ionization and recombination of many-electron atoms and ions in strong, short laser pulses

A theory of the recombination of many-electron atoms by strong one-cycle atto-second laser pulses is presented. After one half-cycle the atom is almost 100% ionized but the second half-cycle returns the electrons to the ground state with high probability. The influence of electron–electron repulsion in the bound and intermediate continuum states is investigated for the simplest two-electron atomic systems, He and H−. It is shown that this influence is negligible as long as the interaction times are sufficiently short.