A 32 mcps single-channel system for high-speed and low distortion microscopy: on-field measurements and future evolution

Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) represents a fundamental tool for the investigation of biological light signals. Unfortunately, due to pile-up distortion the photon acquisition rate must be kept below few percents of the laser rate, thus increasing the acquisition time. Recently, we proposed a single-channel TCSPC system allowing us to overcome pile-up by matching the detector dead time to the laser period. In this work, we perform on-field fluorescence measurements with this system showing that an acquisition speed of 32 Mcps can be reached without significant distortion. Thanks to the promising results, we are now developing a multi-channel module based on the same acquisition technique.