The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 23, 1999
Filed:
Oct. 14, 1998
Shinji Ohsuka, Shizuoka, JP;
Laboratory of Molecular Biophotonics, Shizuoka, JP;
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for efficiently measuring the lifetime of the fluorescence emitted from a fluorescent material in response to pulsed light. The measuring apparatus according to the present invention includes, at least, an excitation light source whose excitation power is regulated such that at least one fluorescence photon can be detected per light pulse on average. While repeatedly irradiating a sample containing the fluorescent material with excitation pulses of light from the excitation light source, a fluorescence detection time from irradiation to fluorescence detection and the number of detected fluorescence photons are measured for each excitation pulse of light. Then, on the basis of a data group composed of pairs of the measurement data of fluorescence photon detection time and fluorescence photon number, both of which are measured for each occurrence of excitation pulse of light, the lifetime and fluorescence decay curve of the fluorescence emitted from the fluorescent material are determined.