New luminescence lifetime macro-imager based on a Tpx3Cam optical camera

Rajannya Sen; Liisa M Hirvonen; Alexander Zhdanov; Peter Svihra; Stefan Andersson-Engels; Andrei Nomerotski; Dmitri Papkovsky

doi:10.1364/BOE.11.000077

New luminescence lifetime macro-imager based on a Tpx3Cam optical camera

Biomed Opt Express. 2019 Dec 5;11(1):77-88. doi: 10.1364/BOE.11.000077. eCollection 2020 Jan 1.

Authors

Rajannya Sen^{1

2}, Liisa M Hirvonen^{3

2}, Alexander Zhdanov¹, Peter Svihra^{4

5}, Stefan Andersson-Engels⁶, Andrei Nomerotski⁷, Dmitri Papkovsky^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ School of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
² These authors contributed equally.
³ Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA), The University of Western Australia, Crawley WA 6009, Australia.
⁴ Department of Physics, Faculty of Nuclear Sciences and Physical Engineering, Czech Technical University, Prague 115 19, Czech Republic.
⁵ Department of Physics and Astronomy, School of Natural Sciences, The University of Manchester, Manchester M139PL, United Kingdom.
⁶ Irish Photonics Integration Centre, Tyndall National Institute, Cork, Ireland.
⁷ Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA.

Abstract

The properties of a novel ultra-fast optical imager, Tpx3Cam, were investigated for macroscopic wide-field phosphorescent lifetime imaging (PLIM) applications. The camera is based on a novel optical sensor and Timepix3 readout chip with a time resolution of 1.6 ns, recording of photon arrival time and time over threshold for each pixel, and readout rate of 80 megapixels per second. In this study, we coupled the camera to an image intensifier, a 760 nm emission filter and a 50 mm lens, and with a super-bright 627nm LED providing pulsed excitation of a 18 × 18 mm sample area. The resulting macro-imager with compact and rigid optical alignment of its main components was characterised using planar phosphorescent O₂ sensors and a resolution plate mask. Several acquisition and image processing algorithms were evaluated to optimise the system resolution and performance for the wide-field PLIM, followed by imaging a variety of phosphorescent samples. The new PLIM system looks promising, particularly for phosphorescence lifetime-based imaging of O₂ in various chemical and biological samples.