Lifetime detection methods data analysis

Phase shift fluorimetry, the other important method for measuring fluorescent lifetimes, also continues to be developed and improved. The effects of Inaccurate reference lifetimes on the interpretation of frequency domain fluorescence data can be removed or minimized by a least squares analysis method.The direct collection of multi-frequency data for obtaining fluorescence lifetimes can be achieved by the use of digital parallel acquisition in frequency domain fluorimetry. Frequency domain lifetime measurement has been used for on-line fluorescence lifetime detection of eluents in chromatography. An unusual use of frequency domain measurement which has been reported is for the examination of photon migration in living tissue. Photons in the... 

The accuracy with which a system can measure lifetimes depends on a number of different factors including calibration of the instrument, the number of detected photons and also the efficiency of the analysis routines. In addition, sources of background and scattered light should be eliminated. Emission filters should be chosen with great care to make sure that no scattered laser light reaches the detector. Detection of scattered excitation light results in a spurious fast component in the decay and complicates the interpretation of the data. The choice of emission filters is much more critical in FLIM than in conventional fluorescence intensity imaging methods. 

In the method of delayed coincidences, the coincidence counting rate between detectors responding selectively to genetically related particles, e.g., a jS- or a-par-ticle and a y-ray or an electron or between y-rays, is plotted as a function of a time delay inserted in the electronic circuits used to detect one of them. The development of this method and of improved electronic techniques has led to the use of resolution times of between 10" and 10 sec. We shall not discuss these methods here, for they have been very adequately reported by Bell [i9], 2ff]. Further analysis of the experimental data has made it possible to measure lifetimes of the order of 10 sec. The limit to the method seems to be determined by the scintillating properties of the phosphor and its physical size. 

When the surface of a solid is bombarded by energetic primary particles, usually, electrons, ions, neutrals, or photons, and secondary particles are emitted. The secondary particles are mainly electrons, neutral species, atoms or molecules, atomic and cluster ions. The majority of secondary particles are neutral species. The secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is a kind of mass spectrometry, where only secondary ions are detected and analyzed by the mass spectrometer. The process yields a mass spectrum of a surface and thus the method enables a detailed chemical analysis of a surface or solid. SIMS is such a powerful technique of surface analysis and microstructural characterization of solids that a very low primary particle flux density of 1 nA/cm or even less can generate spectral data in a timescale, which is very short compared to the lifetime of the surface layer. SIMS is particularly well known for its outstanding sensitivity of chemical and isotopic detection. Quantitative or semiquantitative analysis can... 

Most thermal analysis methods for studying polymeric stabilizer systems are based on the antioxidant s ability to delay the oxidation process. Usually a sample is heated to a specified temperature and the induction time, or period of time before the onset of rapid thermal oxidation, is determined [see discussion of oxidative induction time (OIT) in Section 3.4.2 of this chapter]. The end of the induction period is marked by an abrupt increase in the sample s temperature, evolved heat, or mass and can be detected by DTA, DSC or TGA, respectively (Bair 1997). The effect of antioxidant structure and its concentration on prolonging a sample s induction period can be used to determine the most effective antioxidant system for a polymer such as polyethylene. Extensive data have shown that thermal information such as this can be used successfully to estimate the lifetime of polyethylene at processing temperatures (Bair 1997). 

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