Photoluminescence techniques are amongst the most widely used tools in the life sciences, with new and exciting applications in medical diagnostics and molecular imaging continuously emerging. Advantages include their comparative ease of use, unique sensitivity, non-invasive character, and potential for multiplexing, remote sensing, and miniaturization. General drawbacks are, however, signals, that contain unwanted wavelength- and polarization contributions from instrument-dependent effects, which are also time-dependent due to aging of instrument-components, and difficulties to measure absolute fluorescence intensities [1]. Moreover, scattering systems require special measurement geometries [2] and the interest in new optical reporters with emission > 1000 nm strategies for reliable measurements in the second diagnostic for the comparison of material performance and the rational design of new fluorophores with improved properties [3].
Here, we present strategies to versatile method-adaptable liquid and solid fluorescence standards for different fluorescence parameters including traceable instrument calibration procedures and the design of integrating sphere setups for the absolute measurement of emission spectra and quantum yields in the wavelength region of 350 to 1600 nm [4,5]. Examples are multi-emitter glasses, spectral fluorescence standards, and quantum yield standards for the UV/vis/NIR.
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