Compact, rugged, and inexpensive frequency-domain fluorometer

Ralph Levy; Ernest F. Guignon; Sean Cobane; Ernest St. Louis; Salvador M. Fernandez

doi:10.1117/12.273571

7 May 1997 Compact, rugged, and inexpensive frequency-domain fluorometer

Ralph Levy, Ernest F. Guignon, Sean Cobane, Ernest St. Louis, Salvador M. Fernandez

Proceedings Volume 2980, Advances in Fluorescence Sensing Technology III; (1997) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.273571
Event: BiOS '97, Part of Photonics West, 1997, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

Fluorescence-based fiber-optic sensors are the subject of considerable interest because of their high sensitivity and excellent specificity and versatility. Currently, most fluorescence sensors use UV or visible excitation and are based on intensity measurements; i.e. the emission intensity of the fluorescent indicator changes in response to binding of analyte or to some other variable of interest. While intensity-based sensors may be easy to implement in a controlled laboratory environment they are often difficult in real-world situations because of photobleaching, sample turbidity, fluorophore washout, and fouling of optical surfaces. Another drawback of intensity-based sensing is the problem of referencing the intensity measurements. A promising approach to obviate many of these problems is fluorescence lifetime sensing. Fluorescence lifetimes are exquisitely sensitive to the microenvironment of the fluorophore. Additionally, lifetime measurements are robust, being highly immune to photobleaching, and to changes in fluorophore concentration, exciting light intensity, optical density of the sample, detector sensitivity, fouling of optical surfaces, etc. Despite these advantages, the complexity, size, and high cost of currently available instrumentation for measuring fluorescence lifetimes presents a major barrier to practical implementation of lifetime-based sensors. In this paper we describe a compact, simple-to-use, inexpensive phase fluorometer suitable for sensor applications.

Citation Download Citation

Ralph Levy, Ernest F. Guignon, Sean Cobane, Ernest St. Louis, and Salvador M. Fernandez "Compact, rugged, and inexpensive frequency-domain fluorometer", Proc. SPIE 2980, Advances in Fluorescence Sensing Technology III, (7 May 1997); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.273571

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