Truffle - time-resolved ultrafast fluorescence experiments

The setup supports ultrafast fluorescence experiments that probe luminescence dynamics at ultrafast time scales. In these experiments, the fluorescence emission from the chromophore is collected and focused on a nonlinear BBO crystal, where it is mixed with a second femtosecond pulse at 800 nm (called the gate pulse) which arrives at a given time delay. The mixing of the fluorescence light with the gate pulse gives rise to the sum frequency of the two, which can be detected with a CCD-based spectrograph. The delay of the gate with respect to the pump pulse can be continuously tuned which allows recordings of the temporal evolution of the sample.

The system is also equipped with Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting for measurement up to 13 ns time with 100 ps resolution. The TCSPC electronics is available for both MHz and kHz repetition rates. The TCSPC method is highly sensitive, so this will work well even for weak signals.