Fast recognition of single molecules based on single-event photon statistics
Shuangli Dong, Tao Huang, Yuan Liu, Jun Wang, Guo‐Feng Zhang, Liantuan Xiao, Suotang Jia · Physical Review A · 2007
Mandel's $Q$ parameter, which is determined from single-event photon statistics, provides an alternative way to recognize single molecules with fluorescence detection, other than the second-order correlation function. It is shown that the $Q$ parameter of an assumed ideal double-molecule fluorescence with the same average photon number as that of the sample fluorescence can act as the criterion for single-molecule recognition. The influence of signal-to-background ratio and the error estimates for photon statistics are also presented. We have applied this method to ascertain single Cy5 dye molecules within hundreds of milliseconds.