Abstract
Until recently, single molecule fluorescence experiments have been made by dividing the time into a set of intervals and to observe the number of fluorescence photons arriving in each interval. It is obvious that the detected photons per time interval carry less information than the arrival times of the photons themselves. Indeed, from the arrival times, one can still calculate the number of photons in any user-defined interval, whereas when only the number of photons in an interval is recorded, information about their positions in time is lost. In this chapter we present a new analysis of single molecule fluorescence data based on the positions in time of the detected fluorescence photons. We derive mathematically different statistical characteristics describing the single molecule fluorescence experiment assuming an immobilized molecule. The theory of random point processes using the generating functionals formalism is ideally suited for a consistent description, linking the statistical characteristics of the excitation and detected photons to the statistical characteristics of the single motionless molecule. The following statistical characteristics are described: the probability density distributions of the single and first photocount time positions in a user-defined detection interval, the probability distribution of the number of photocounts per user-defined detection interval, the time correlation function, and the inter-arrival time probability density distribution. The new analysis is illustrated using the traces of photon arrival times of individual rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules to obtain information on their photophysics.
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Novikov, E., Hofkens, J., Cotlet, M., Schryver, F.C.D., Boens, N. (2004). New Analysis of Single Molecule Fluorescence Using Series of Photon Arrival Times. In: Geddes, C.D., Lakowicz, J.R. (eds) Reviews in Fluorescence 2004. Reviews in Fluorescence 2004, vol 2004. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48672-2_14
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48672-2_14
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