Screening Effects in Multielectron Ionization of Heavy Atoms in Intense Laser Fields

Abstract

Multielectron ionization of Xe is described in terms of multistep processes, driven by a laser field which is screened by the motion of the outer $5p$ shell. In stepwise multiple ionization of the $5p$ shell, screening is successively reduced. The effective, local intensity will therefore increase during the stripping of the outer shell. In the $4d$ inner-shell region the effective intensity is very low. Finally we point out difficulties connected with the tentative identification of recently observed $4d$ Auger spectra.