The minimum energy required to remove an electron from a specified atom or molecule to such a distance that there is no electrostatic interaction between ion and electron. Originally defined as the minimum potential through which an electron would have to fall to ionize an atom, the ionization potential was measured in volts. It is now, however, defined as the energy to effect an ionization and is conveniently measured in electronvolts (although this is not an SI unit) or joules per mole. The synonymous term ionization energy (IE) is often used.
The energy to remove the least strongly bound electron is the first ionization potential. Second, third, and higher ionization potentials can also be measured, although there is some ambiguity in terminology. Thus, in chemistry the second ionization potential is often taken to be the minimum energy required to remove an electron from the singly charged ion; the second IP of lithium would be the energy for the process
In physics, the second ionization potential is the energy required to remove an electron from the next to highest energy level in the neutral atom or molecule; e.g.
where Li+ is an excited singly charged ion produced by removing an electron from the K-shell.
https://www.nist.gov/pml/ground-levels-and-ionization-energies-neutral-atoms A table of values provided by NIST