Wide-field single photon counting imaging with an ultrafast camera and an image intensifier

We are reporting a method for wide-field photon counting imaging using a CMOS camera with a 40 kHz frame rate coupled with a three-stage image intensifier mounted on a standard fluorescence microscope. This system combines high frame rates with single photon sensitivity. The output of the phosphor screen, consisting of single-photon events, is collected by a CMOS camera allowing to create a wide-field image with parallel positional and timing information of each photon. Using a pulsed excitation source and a luminescent sample, the arrival time of hundreds of photons can be determined simultaneously in many pixels with microsecond resolution.