Two-exponential decay of Acridine Orange

Abstract

In this work, we experimentally study the fluorescence decay of Acridine Orange at late times, in order to test whether a late-time power-law behaviour emerges, a feature expected to be very small but consistent with quantum mechanical and quantum field theoretical predictions. Using two distinct photon detectors, we find that the data are well described by a sum of two exponential functions with lifetimes ${\tau }_1=1.7331\pm 0.001$ ns and ${\tau }_2=5.948\pm 0.012$ ns, in agreement with values reported in the literature. While no deviation from the exponential decay law is observed, this study serves as a reliable test for the experimental setup and enables a precise determination of the sample lifetimes.

Proceedings of the 2nd Symposium on new trends in nuclear and medical physics, September 24-26, 2025, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland. 6 pages, 1 figure, 1 table

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