Particle analysis and imaging apparatus and methods

A method for analyzing an optical signal decay, the method comprising:

• producing, in an excitation optical path, a beam of pulsed optical energy from a light source that is configured to repetitiously interrogate a sample on a pixel by pixel basis;
• detecting, at an emission optical path using a detector comprising a number of spectral detection channels, optical signals having a number of distinct wavelength sections of the electromagnetic spectrum resulting from interactions between the beam and the sample;
• converting the optical signals into corresponding electrical signals;
• processing the electrical signals for each pixel by:
• mathematically combining individual decay curves in the electrical signals into a decay supercurve comprising a number of components, each component having a time constant and a relative contribution to the decay supercurve;
• allocating individual components of the decay supercurve to discrete bins of predetermined time constants;
• and
• quantifying the relative contribution of individual components to the decay supercurve.