Researchers studying advanced materials increasingly need to see how light emitted by a sample changes over time and across its surface, not just how bright it is. In a discussion on the Physics World Weekly podcast, Emilio Gutierrez-Partida, a product manager for materials science at the German photonics company PicoQuant, described how time-resolved photoluminescence microscopy is meeting that need.
The technique brings together three kinds of information in a single measurement: when light is emitted, where on the sample it comes from, and at what wavelengths it is emitted. Gutierrez-Partida said the approach is becoming more important as the materials under study grow more complicated and the experiments built around them grow more demanding.
The conversation also covered PicoQuant's Solira microscope, which the company launched in February. Gutierrez-Partida discussed how the instrument was developed and the kinds of applications it is intended to serve. PicoQuant, founded in 1996, is known for time-correlated single-photon counting, the detection method that underpins many such measurements.
Gutierrez-Partida previously completed a PhD at the University of Potsdam on perovskite solar cells, a field in which photoluminescence measurements are widely used to probe how charges move through a material. The episode was sponsored by PicoQuant, and readers seeking more information can contact the company at info@ or visit.