CPC G01N 15/14 (2013.01) [G01N 15/147 (2013.01); G01N 15/1429 (2013.01); G01N 15/1434 (2013.01); G01N 15/1436 (2013.01); G01N 2015/1006 (2013.01); G01N 2015/144 (2013.01); G01N 2015/149 (2013.01); G01N 2015/1438 (2013.01); G01N 2015/1477 (2013.01); G01N 2015/1488 (2013.01)] | 20 Claims |
1. An apparatus for analyzing an optical signal decay, comprising:
a source of a beam of pulsed optical energy configured to expose a sample to the beam;
a detector comprising a number of spectral detection channels sensitive to distinct wavelength sections of the electromagnetic spectrum, wherein the channels are configured to detect optical signals resulting from interactions between the beam and the sample and convert the optical signals into respective electrical signals;
a first optical path from the source of the beam to the sample;
a second optical path from the sample to the detector; and
a signal processing module configured to execute a lifetime analysis algorithm comprising:
receiving the electrical signals from the detector, wherein the electrical signals represent a time-domain sequence of pulse signals;
segmenting the sequence into equal pulse signal segments each comprising substantially a same number of sampling points, wherein each sampling point of each pulse signal segment corresponds to a respective sampling index, and wherein a length of each pulse signal segment corresponds to an excitation pulse repetition period;
coherently adding a value of a sampling point corresponding to the respective sampling index of each pulse signal segment to form a supercurve, wherein each sampling index of the supercurve corresponds to a value equal to a sum of substantially all the sampling point values from the corresponding sampling indices from each pulse signal segment, and wherein the supercurve comprises an intensity of at least one lifetime component over time;
determining whether the at least one lifetime component of the supercurve comprises one or both of: a short-lifetime component and a long-lifetime component; and
quantifying an intensity contribution of the at least one lifetime component of the supercurve.
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