Noise effect on 2D photoluminescence decay analysis using the RATS method in a single-pixel camera configuration

Using a random temporal signal for sample excitation (RATS method) is a new, capable approach to measuring photoluminescence (PL) dynamics. The method can be used in single-point measurement (OD), but also it can be converted to PL decay imaging (2D) using a single-pixel camera configuration. In both cases, the reconstruction of the PL decay and PL snapshot is affected by ubiquitous noise. This article provides a detailed analysis of the noise effect on the RATS method and possible strategies for its suppression. We carried out an extensive set of simulations focusing on the effect of noise introduced through the random excitation signal and the corresponding PL waveform. We show that the PL signal noise level is critical for the method. Furthermore, we analyze the role of acquisition time, where we demonstrate the need for a non-periodic excitation signal. We show that it is beneficial to increase the acquisition time and that increasing the number of measurements in the single-pixel camera configuration has a minimal effect above a certain threshold. Finally, we study the effect of a regularization parameter used in the deconvolution step, and we observe that there is an optimum value set by the noise present in the PL dataset. Our results provide a guideline for optimization of the RATS measurement, but we also study effects generally occurring in PL decay measurements methods relying on the deconvolution step. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

Using a random temporal signal for sample excitation (RATS method) is a new approach to measure photoluminescence (PL) dynamics. This article analyzes the noise effect on the RATS method and suggests strategies for noise suppression. The results show that the PL signal noise level is critical and increasing the acquisition time is beneficial, while increasing the number of measurements only has a minimal effect.