12th International Symposium on Bioluminescence & Chemiluminescence

Symposium abstracts:

Critical considerations in the use of photomultipliers in chemi- and bioluminescence applications

Wright, A.G.

Electron Tubes Ltd, Bury Street, Ruislip, HA47TA, UK

The case for photomultipliers as the preferred detectors for quantifying weak or short-lived light emissions was made in a previous review paper.¹ Further practical guidance is given as an extension to the earlier work, by examining the following topics:

· linearity of anode output with respect to light input

· figure of merit, S²/B, based on the statistics of Signal and Background

· the Baysean approach to the statistical treatment of low count rates

· voltage divider and power supply considerations in portable instruments

· recent advances in photon counting packages

1. Ellis, R.J., Wright A.G., Luminescence 1999;14:11-18

This is a preprint of an article accepted for publication in Luminescence: Copyright 2001 John
Wiley & Sons, Ltd (Wiley website)