Coherent control of atom ionization with sequential laser pulses

Numerical simulations performed in this paper have demonstrated that the ionization degree of a Rydberg atom can be coherently controlled with a laser field in the regime of resonant stabilization (V-stabilization) in the case of laser pulses with a smooth shape. It is shown that the ionization degree of a Rydberg atom irradiated with two sequential pulses in the regime of V-stabilization substantially depends on the delay time between the pulses both in the case of rectangular pulses (with small switch-on and switch-off times) and in the case of smooth (sinusoidal and Gaussian) pulses. The conditions allowing the ionization degree of an atom to be coherently controlled with a pair of smooth pulses are determined.