Benchmarking of Fluorescence Lifetime Measurement using Time-Frequency Correlated Photons

The investigation of fluorescence lifetime became an important tool in biology and medical science. So far, established methods of fluorescence lifetime measurements require the illumination of the investigated probes with pulsed or amplitude-modulated light. In this paper, we examine the limitations of an innovative method of fluorescence lifetime using the strong time-frequency correlation of entangled photons generated by a continuous-wave source. For this purpose, we investigate the lifetime of IR-140 to demonstrate the functional principle and its dependencies on different experimental parameters. We also compare this technique with state-of-the-art FLIM and observed an improved figure-of-merit. Finally, we discuss the potential of a quantum advantage. This data set offers all program codes, raw data and plots used for the related publication. Additionally, to track all changes made to the manuscript during the review process, the response letter to the reviewers, which includes also a manuscript version highlighting the differences between preprint versions v1 and v2 (see https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2501.08870), are enclosed. Preprint version v2 is finally published as peer-review paper in Methods in Microscopy (see https://doi.org/10.1515/mim-2025-0001).