On the mono-exponential fitting of phosphorescence decays

作者：Fuhrmann N^*; Bruebach J; Dreizler A

来源：Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics , 2014, 116(2): 359-369.

DOI：10.1007/s00340-013-5700-2

Several methods for mono-exponential fitting of decay curves are presented and compared among each other in terms of precision, accuracy and computational time. Simulated noisy data sets are generated and evaluated in order to determine the main contributors to a loss in performance. The influence of the temporal discretization of the decay curve on the precision of the fitting methods is discussed. Correlations between the background offset and the decay time are analyzed. Variations of the signal-to-noise ratio are shown, allowing for evaluation of systematic errors and precision in the presence of noise. Finally, the algorithms are applied to experimental data, and the computational efforts for the different algorithms are compared. The results of this latter investigation confirm the conclusions drawn from the simulated data and the following conclusions are drawn: The frequently applied method of performing a linear regression to the logarithm of a background-corrected decay showed systematic errors in the presence of noise. Best results in terms of precision and accuracy were obtained by a nonlinear least-squares approximation and a method denoted as the linear regression of the sum. Additionally, this latter method required the lowest computational time and is finally recommended for determining decay times from experimental data.

• 出版日期2014-8