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 We just can't emphasize enough how easy the EasyLife™ is to perform fluorescence lifetime experiments. There is a power button to turn on the instrument, and there is dial to adjust the stirring rate of the optional micro-stirrer for the cuvette. Everything else is controlled through the software. It is just that easy!
Pulsed LED Light Sources
 Nothing could be easier. OBB engineers have developed a broad range of simple, inexpensive, nanosecond pulsed light emitting diodes (LED's) to be used as excitation sources with the EasyLife™ systems. These small but robust light sources are available in a broad range of wavelengths, from UV to NIR. They have excellent pulse to pulse, and long term, stability in their intensity as well as their temporal pulse profiles as is evidenced by the high quality of data the system produces. Switching from one LED to another requires no alignment, and takes only a few seconds. You could not possibly work with any simpler, maintenance-free, light source for fluorescence lifetime research.
Pulsed LED Advantages
The EasyLife™ pulsed LEDs have certain distinct advantages over more conventional light sources, such as nanosecond flash lamps, lasers and laser diodes. These advantages are:
- Inexpensive
- Durable
- Require no maintenance
- Very stable pulse sources
- Fast
- Wavelengths from UV to NIR (currently 280–670 nm)
- Small size
- Easily interchangeable (snap in—snap out)
Impressive Pulse Stability
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6 Hours Repeat Acquisition |
Repeat After 4 Days |
Click on images to enlarge. |
Available LEDs
What you need to do is to select a source or sources. The following list shows you the current choices. To exchange sources is real easy, just snap off and then snap on and it is done—no alignment required.
Below 280 nm we are limited by the current state of the technology for LED’s. Do not despair the future should offer even more choices.
LED Sources: |
Central Wavelength |
EL 265 |
excitation LED: 266 +\- 10 nm |
EL 278 |
excitation LED: 280 +\- 10 nm |
EL 295 |
excitation LED: 297 +\- 10 nm |
EL 310 |
excitation LED: 310 +\- 10 nm |
EL 340 |
excitation LED: 340 +\- 10 nm |
EL 366 |
excitation LED: 368 +\- 10 nm |
EL 375 |
excitation LED: 375 +\- 10 nm |
EL 405 |
excitation LED: 403 +\- 10 nm |
EL 410 |
excitation LED: 407 +\- 10 nm |
EL 435 |
excitation LED: 432 +\- 10 nm |
EL 445 |
excitation LED: 444 +\- 10 nm |
EL 450 |
excitation LED: 456 +\- 10 nm |
EL 490 |
excitation LED: 486 +\- 10 nm |
EL 505 |
excitation LED: 510 +\- 10 nm |
EL 525 |
excitation LED: 518 +\- 10 nm |
EL 570 |
excitation LED: 572 +\- 10 nm |
LD 630 |
excitation laser diode: 633 +\- 10 nm |
LD 650 |
excitation laser diode: 649 +\- 10 nm |
LD 670 |
excitation laser diode: 667 +\- 10 nm |
Other LED's and laser diodes are available on request. |
Sample Compartment
The EasyLife™ sample compartment can be configured with a variety of options including the following.
- micro-stirrer
- bandpass and longpass filters
- neutral density filters
- cold finger dewar
Unique Patented Detection
The EasyLife™ X is a time-domain fluorescence lifetime system. It collects a decay curve, allowing the user to fit the curve with comprehensive analysis software that provides many statistical tools to assess goodness of fit. The particular time-domain detection technique used in the EasyLife™ X is called the Stroboscopic technique and it is patented and unique. The Stroboscopic technique was initially developed to be a simpler, less expensive alternative to an older time-domain detection technique called Time-Correlated Single-Photon-Counting (TCSPC). For more information on the EasyLife TCSPC system click here.
Unique Lifetime Kinetics Acquisition Protocol
The EasyLife™ X is the only commercial system available (at any price!) that measures Lifetime Kinetics. If you are familiar with using a fluorometer for time-based kinetics you are familiar with collecting the steady state intensity as a function of time to monitor kinetics and reactions. The EasyLife™ X can acquire data in a similar way except that instead of the intensity changing with time the EasyLife™ X acquires the measured lifetime as a function of time. The time duration of this measurement can be from a few seconds to many hours. Without concern for possibly intensity fluctuations in your sample, this acquisition protocol lets you actually see when the lifetime changes. We believe this unique capability, will become an essential tool for a wide variety of emerging applications.
Unique Logarithmic/Arithmetic Time Scale Decay Acquisition
The EasyLife™ X software takes full advantage of the patented stroboscopic detection hardware, to provide another unique acquisition protocol. Collecting data in a logarithmic, or arithmetic, time scale can be extremely useful for samples that have both very short and very long fluorescence lifetimes. For the short lived components you need to collect a lot of data points in order to get a good fit for those lifetimes, but for the very long lifetimes you don’t want to collect data at the same time resolution because it takes much longer and provides no benefit in fitting the decay curve.
Systems that use other techniques like TCSPC are forced to collect data in a linear time scale, so for this sample they necessarily must collect many more data points across the full acquisition time window in order to have enough data points to resolve the short lifetime components. However since TCSPC can only collect in a linear time scale the experimenter is forced to collect many more data points than they need for long lived component. The EasyLife™ X acquiring with the logarithmic time scale can acquire in minutes, what would take hours with TCSPC. In this way the Stroboscopic technique employed with the EasyLife™ X can collect excellent data for complex decay phenomena much faster than is possible with the TCSPC technique.
EasyLife™ X System
The entire EasyLife™ X takes up just one cubic foot of lab space!
With our proprietary LED light sources combined with our patented stroboscopic detection system, you are able to reap the benefits of high sensitivity, excellent temporal resolution and the unique ability to acquire lifetime kinetics or to utilize both linear and non-linear (arithmetic and logarithmic) acquisition time base. The result is a powerful and versatile lifetime instrument, capable of handling complex multi-exponential decays with an underlying broad range of lifetimes.
Did we mention that the EasyLife™ X is the easiest system available to do fluorescence lifetime experiments?
For more information on the EasyLife™ X visit the EasyLife™ X Software page. |
