Compact Time-Resolved Fluorescence Spectrometer

Fluorescence-lifetime spectroscopy is currently used in several applications for rapid medical diagnoses of diseases, e.g. cancer, oral carcinoma, actinic cheilitis and tissue diagnosis. In addition, it has various applications in biology, chemistry analysis, pharmaceutical applications and physics.Existing fluorescence spectrometer systems are bulky and large optical setups and using intricate monochromators with movable parts or use non-tunable bandpass filters. Therefore, the user has to adjust the filters when changing the fluorophore.In this work, we propose a spectrometer setup that can be tuned for different emission wavelengths using spatial light modulators (SLM) based on MEMS technology. A proof-of-concept spectrometer is built with a very compact optical layout following a Fastie-Ebert configuration followed by a digital micromirror device for wavelength selection along with a novel high-speed-gated single CAPS pixel detector. The setup operates in the spectral range between 510 and 645 nm. In this paper, two set of measurements are reported. Firstly, the selection of different wavelengths over the operation region. Secondly, the measurement of fluorescence lifetime of a sample at different wavelengths.