Array fluorometry: the theory of the statistical multiplexing of single-photon timing

The theory of the statistical multiplexing of single photon timing fluorescence decay data is derived for the first time and shown to be consistent with measured array data. The present theory enables single photon timing arrays to be optimised for maximum data collection rate with regard to the number of channels in an array, channel count rates and cross-channel pile-up. Both the experimental and theoretical results prove that overall data collection rates up to 35% of the source repetition rate can be achieved by means of multiplexing with a single time-to-amplitude converter.