Why Use TCSPC For Fluorescence Lifetime Measurements?

TCSPC (Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting) is the method of choice for fluorescence lifetime measurements. The TCSPC technique outperforms all other techniques in sensitivity, dynamic range, data accuracy and precision.

TCSPC measures single photons, therefore detection is at the quantum limit. The technique requires an excitation source with high repetition rate pulsed output. As the process of capturing a single photon is repeated several thousand or even a million times per second, a sufficiently high number of single photons is processed for the resulting fluorescence lifetime measurement.

Only one photon is processed at a time, so the light pulses required for sample excitation have low pulse energy. This causes minimal sample degradation and avoids many non-linear sample effects.