Two flashlamp-pumped, tunable, dye lasers have been utilized to study three-photon ionization in atomic sodium. The resulting ion yield shows large peaks at laser frequencies which correspond to electric quadrupole transitions. This is the first direct observation of electric quadrupole effects in multiphoton ionization. The $3p^{2}P_{\frac{3}{2}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}4f$ matrix element is determined, and the fine-structure splitting of the
5p state is measured.
We report measurements of photoelectron angular distributions via electric quadrupole transitions in cesium atoms using multiphoton excitation techniques. Experimental results are presented for the cases of one-photon resonant, two-photon ionization via the 6d
2D3/2 and 6d
2D5/2 electric quadrupole transitions and for one-photon resonant, three-photon ionization via the 5d
2 D3/2 and 5d
2D5/2 transitions. The ratios of the total ionization rates for linearly and circularly polarized light have also been measured for the 6d
2D3/2 and 6d
2D5/2 states. A theoretical analysis and detailed comparison with the experimental results are given.