Field correlation effects on the resonant light scattering

Effects of incident photon field coherence on resonant light scattering have been investigated. In order to obtain the scattering intensity and the photon counting rate, an expression for the reduced density matrix for the scattered field has been derived. The expression involves the first-order correlation function of the incident field. The relation between the line shape of the scattered light and the bandwidth of the incident field has been clarified. Model calculations of the photon counting rate have been performed in the case of an incident field without first-order coherence. In our treatment, the transverse and longitudinal relaxation constants have been taken into account by using the impact approximation.