The dual-kinetic-balance (DKB) technique was previously developed to eliminate spurious states in the finite-basis-set-based solution of the Dirac equation in central fields. In the present paper, it is extended to the Dirac equation for systems with axial symmetry. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by the calculation of the energy spectra of hydrogenlike ions in the presence of static uniform electric or magnetic fields. In addition, the DKB basis set is implemented to solve the time-dependent Dirac equation making use of the split-operator technique. The excitation and ionization probabilities for the hydrogenlike argon and tin ions exposed to laser pulses are evaluated.

• Received 22 November 2013

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.89.012514