A second generation global analysis program for the recovery of complex inhomogeneous fluorescence decay kinetics.

A fluorescence spectroscopy global data analysis environment is described. Within this analysis environment, multidimensional fluorescence decay data (time and frequency domains) can be analyzed in terms of a wide variety of photophysical models. A generalized compartmental analysis structure is utilized, where one can specify the functions used to link the various compartments together. All fitting parameters may be characterized by either discrete or distributed values. Applications of these new analysis programs to the examination of phase transitions in lipid/membrane systems are described.