FREQUENCY AND POLARIZATION EFFECTS IN STABILIZATION

Quantitative results are presented for stabilization of atoms against ionization by strong laser fields over a wide range of frequencies for circular and linear polarization. With circular polarization, stabilization occurs for all frequencies. At high frequency (omega > 1 a.u.), the stabilization intensity is predicted by the occurrence of photon thresholds. This mechanism gives excellent numerical agreement both with present calculations and the results of Pont and Gavrila [Phys. Rev. Lett. 65, 2362 (1990)]. A different mechanism operates for omega < 1 a.u. Linear polarization differs strongly from circular polarization in many respects.