Optimal use of photomultipliers for chemiluminescence and bioluminescence applications

Photomultipliers are the preferred detectors for quantifying weak or short- lived light emissions. The quality of signal recovery has an upper limit im posed by the statistical nature of light detection. It is shown that the ph oton counting method can provide performance close to ideal, whereas perfor mance in the current measuring method is degraded by noise in the multiplie r gain process and by the nature of the dark current. Performance variation s because of changes in temperature, shock, vibration and magnetic field ef fects are significantly reduced when using the photon counting method. The effects of dead-time can be corrected making photon counting superior to cu rrent measuring with regard to dynamic range. The benefits of using photon counting packages are presented. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.