Time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy is a promising and versatile spectroscopy technique. While conventional fluorescence spectroscopy is concerned with the spectral features of fluorescence emission, time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy (TRFS) also captures the temporal behavior of the excited molecules. In addition to applications in rapid medical diagnoses, several applications were reported in forensics, chemical analysis and biology.
The existing TRFS systems are based on complex optical setups which results in bulky and large systems. Therefore, using them in practice is still not feasible. In this work, we present a miniaturized system that combines a compact Czerny-Turner based spectrometer layout with our high-speed time-gated image sensor of 32×32 pixels based on the Current-Assisted Photonic Sampler (CAPS) sensor.
The system operates in the visible wavelength range with a high spectral resolution. The novel image sensor is capable of measuring down to sub-nanosecond lifetimes. The proof-of-concept module was assembled and characterized for three fluorophores.
