Beyond pile-up limits: a new approach to time correlated single photon counting

The peculiar features of Time Correlated Single Photon Counting (TCSPC) have made this tool a key element in a great variety of applications, but its speed limits still prevent its exploitation in many other advanced applications. Historically, limiting the acquisition rate of a single TCSPC channel was considered the only way to avoid the so-called pile-up distortion. In this work we present a completely new approach able to remove any constraint on TCSPC while guaranteeing negligible distortion at any operating rate. This solution opens the way to the development of novel ultrafast TCSPC instrumentation.