Method and apparatus for investigating a sample with regard to the lifetime of an excited state

摘要

The invention relates to a method for investigating a sample with regard to the lifetime of an excited state, in particular a fluorescence lifetime, and/or with regard to a property of a sample which is correlated with a lifetime of an excited state, in particular with a fluorescence lifetime, a sample region being illuminated with a sequence of excitation light pulses. The method is characterized in that the light quantity and/or number of photons of the detected light, in particular fluorescent light, proceeding from the sample region is measured temporally between the excitation light pulses exclusively within a detection time window in each case, at least two detection time windows having different temporal lengths.

主权项

1. A method for investigating a sample with regard to a lifetime of an excited state, in particular a fluorescence lifetime, and/or with regard to a property of a sample which is correlated with the lifetime of the excited state, in particular with a fluorescence lifetime, the method comprising:
illuminating a sample region with a sequence of excitation light pulses; and temporally measuring, between the excitation light pulses within a respective detection time window, a light quantity and/or a number of photons of detected light, in particular fluorescent light, proceeding from the sample region, wherein a detection time window onset is defined by a first time offset from a preceding excitation light pulse, and a detection time window end is defined by a second time offset from the preceding excitation light pulse, wherein, for respective detection time windows from preceding excitation light pulses, second time offsets are identical and first time offsets are modified, in particular extended during illumination with the sequence of excitation light pulses in order to generate detection time windows of non-identical lengths.