title: Effect of fluorescence observation geometry on lifetime measurement, including the development of an approximation to the detector collection efficiency integral.
abstract: Formulas are developed for determining the error introduced into the measurement of an exponential fluorescence decay time by the physical limitations of the observation region. Special care is taken to include the effects of the variation of detector collection efficiency over the volume of the observation region. A by-product of this effort is the development of an approximate formula for collection efficiency that is good to better than 1% over a large range of spacial coordinates; this formula shows promise of applicability to a large class of experimental problems where the closed-form calculation of collection efficiencies would be valuable.
authors.forename: P B
authors.initials: PB
authors.lastname: Sackett