Time-Correlated Photon Counting
Abstract Photomultipliers are the preferred detectors for quantifying weak or
short-lived light emissions.
The quality of signal recovery has an upper limit imposed by the statistical nature of
light detection. It is
shown that the photon counting method can provide performance close to ideal, whereas
performance in the
current measuring method is degraded by noise in the multiplier gain process and by the
nature of the dark
current. Performance variations because of changes in temperature, shock, vibration and
magnetic field
effects are significantly reduced when using the photon counting method. The effects of
dead-time can be
corrected making photon counting superior to current measuring with regard to dynamic
range. The benefits
of using photon counting packages are presented. Copyright ©1999 John Wiley & Sons,
Ltd.