Arrangement for time-correlated single counting of photons with high counting rate

摘要

The invention relates to an arrangement for time-correlated single photon counting with a maximum photon count rate in the range above 10% of the reciprocal dead time of the signal processing electronics or above 10% of the signal repetition frequency. With a four-module arrangement and a signal repetition frequency of 50-80 MHz, a count rate of 100 to 160 million photons per second can be achieved. The arrangement relies on a signal splitter which distributes successive photons to different TCSPC modules. The arrangement increases the maximum count rate at least in proportion to the number of TCSPC modules used. The presented solution can be used for classical TCSPC modules as well as for TCSPC systems, which work with multi-dimensional methods. It is also independent of whether the photon distributions are built directly into the TCSPC modules, or if the data of each photon are transferred to a computer, and the distributions are generated by the software installed there.