RECONVOLUTION ANALYSIS IN TIME-RESOLVED FLUORESCENCE EXPERIMENTS - ANALTERNATIVE APPROACH - REFERENCE-TO-EXCITATION-TO-FLUORESCENCE RECONVOLUTION

A novel method for reconstructing the apparatus response function requ ired for accurate detailed analysis of nanosecond time-resolved fluore scence decay data is proposed and tested with properly constructed sim ulated data sets for a variety of pertinent cases, using the high-accu racy convolution algorithm previously developed [J. Vecer, A. A. Kowal czyk, and R. E. Dale, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 64, 3403 (1993)]. The veracit y of recovery of test mono- and multiexponential decay responses by th is method, involving the use of two appropriately chosen monoexponenti al reference decay responses, is shown to be essentially identical to that attainable with the ''true'' apparatus response function. The met hod is also demonstrated to exhibit significant advantages in a variet y of situations over currently the most widely employed method of over coming extant problems in the direct determination of an appropriate a pparatus function: indirect analysis against a monoexponential referen ce decay response (delta-function convolution method, F-F deconvolutio n).