Photon correlation effects in resonant multiphoton ionization

Abstract
The effect of photon correlations on two- and three-photon ionization via two near-resonant levels is discussed in terms of the resolvent-operator formalism. It is shown that under certain circumstances the ionization probability for a chaotic light can be enhanced by a factor larger than N! compared to the ionization probability for a coherent light. The dependence of this enhancement factor on the interaction time, the average intensity, the detunings of the photon frequency from the near-resonant levels, and the separation between the two near-resonant levels is discussed.