Anomalous Autler-Townes Splitting in Resonant Multiphoton Ionization Driven by Bright Squeezed Vacuum

Abstract

Bright squeezed vacuum (BSV) light has a vanishing mean optical electric field yet can strongly enhance strong-field nonlinear responses beyond the conventional semiclassical paradigm. Here we examine this scenario in the light-matter strong-coupling regime by investigating resonant multiphoton ionization of atoms driven by BSV, using a fully quantum treatment of both the electron and the field. Our results show that the photoelectron energy spectrum exhibits an anomalous Autler-Townes splitting whose magnitude grows with the Above-threshold-ionization (ATI) order, rather than remaining essentially ATI-order independent as in the case of coherent driving. This behavior reflects a general scaling with the number of absorbed photons and originates from the broad photon-number fluctuations of the driving field together with the resulting electron-field entanglement. We further show that the BSV-induced enhancement of ionization yields evolves with intensity, crossing over from the $g^{(p+1)}$ limit to the $g^{(p)}$ limit as Rabi oscillations become established. These results identify a quantum regime of strong-field ionization governed by the interplay of photon statistics, nonlinear transitions, strong coupling, and nonseparable light-matter dynamics.