Laser pulse sequence effects on selective ionization in three-level systems driven by coherent radiation fields

Using the time-dependent Schrödinger equation we investigate the effect of different pulse sequences of two lasers on selective ionization in three-level systems driven by coherent radiation fields. It is assumed that inhomogeneous broadening as well as the radiative decay can be neglected during the laser pulses. We demonstrate to what an extent the selectivity given by the absorption or relaxation process can be increased by coherent interaction during the first step and different timing of the incoherent interaction during the second step of a two-step photoionization. A comparison is made with the rate-equation results. We could show that utilization of coherent excitation for high ionization selectivity is most efficient if the two laser pulses do not overlap.