<title>Fluorescence lifetime distributions: distinguishing between models and exponential series method in frequency domain</title>

Abstract

The distinguishability between models in the recovery of fluorescence lifetime distributions is determined by the distance between the estimation spaces spanned by the models in the 2N dimensional sample space, where N is the number of frequencies used in the phase-modulation fluorescence lifetime measurements. The distinguishability regions between the model of two discrete components and the Gaussian distribution model are described in this paper as an example. The use of a priori distribution functions such as Gaussian, Lorentzian, and uniform distributions without a physical basis poses a serious problem in the physical interpretation of the recovered parameters. This work introduces the application of the exponential series method (ESM) for recovering lifetime distributions in the frequency domain and distinguishing between models without using any a priori models.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.