Department of Physics, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093-0374, USA.
J Neurophysiol. 2011 Jun;105(6):3106-13. doi: 10.1152/jn.00649.2010. Epub 2011 Apr 6.
We present a high-speed photon counter for use with two-photon microscopy. Counting pulses of photocurrent, as opposed to analog integration, maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio so long as the uncertainty in the count does not exceed the gain-noise of the photodetector. Our system extends this improvement through an estimate of the count that corrects for the censored period after detection of an emission event. The same system can be rapidly reconfigured in software for fluorescence lifetime imaging, which we illustrate by distinguishing between two spectrally similar fluorophores in an in vivo model of microstroke.
我们提出了一种用于双光子显微镜的高速光子计数器。与模拟积分相比,对光电流的计数脉冲最大限度地提高了信噪比,只要计数的不确定性不超过光电探测器的增益噪声即可。我们的系统通过对检测到发射事件后的截短时间段进行计数估计,从而扩展了这种改进。通过在软件中快速重新配置相同的系统,可以进行荧光寿命成像,我们通过在微卒中的体内模型中区分两种光谱相似的荧光团来说明这一点。