Enhancement of the quantum efficiency of a fluorescence cesium filter

The dependence of the quantum efficiency of fluorescence cesium vapor filters, which allow one to select with a high contrast the desired narrow-band signal against the background of broadband (solar) radiation, is studied. The most important characteristic of such filters, apart from the spectral band, is the quantum efficiency; i.e., the ratio of the number of florescent photons to the number of absorbed photons of excitation. It is experimentally shown that addition of a buffer gas to working cesium atoms can substantially increase the quantum efficiency as compared with that of working atoms in vacuum. The dependence of the quantum efficiency on the characteristic of transitions that are involved in population of atomic levels from which fluorescence occurs, and the processes resulting in an increase in the quantum efficiency of atomic fluorescence filters are considered.