Atomic single-active-electron potential and application to intense field processes*

Simulations of interaction of multielectron atoms with intense laser fields are computationally expensive. Therefore, often the single-active electron (SAE) approximation is used. We present a method for generating SAE potentials for atoms and ions, based on density functional theory calculations. Exact potentials are fit to physically-motivated analytic forms dependent on the orbital structure. Applications to simulation of high harmonic generation will be presented.