Study of laser-induced chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime measurement and its correction

A novel method for laser-induced fluorescence lifetime measurement and correction are presented to improve precision of chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime measurement. Laser was used as excitation source for exciting chlorophyll fluorescence. According to the measured signals characteristics, the fluorescence and background signals were detected respectively by photomultiplier. The chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime can be estimated from deconvolution of the fluorescence and background signals. Based on a number of retrieved results from simulations, a rule of inherent error with deconvolution was found. Therefore, the calibration formula was obtained through the comparison of ideal fluorescence lifetimes and retrieved ones. In actual measurements, the intrinsic fluorescence decay can be separated from the measured signals by deconvolution, and thus, the retrieved fluorescence lifetimes were substituted into a calibration formula to calculate the corrected values. Both simulations and experiments show that the method is a high precision and real-time measurement technique for chlorophyll fluorescence lifetime.