Comment on 'Stabilization of a one-dimensional short-range model atom in intense laser fields'

It has been claimed by Su, Irving. Johnson and Eberly, on the basis of numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation for a model atom in the presence of short intense laser pulses, that a suppression of ionization occurs and that the atoms are 'stabilized'. We disagree with their interpretation of the results and argue that the non-monotonic variation of ionization probability with laser intensity is a normal expectation in any strongly coupled quantum system. The main effect of the pulse shape on ionization at ultra-high fields is shown to be in the final classical displacement of the centroid of the oscillating and spreading wavepacket.