Theoretical and experimental distributions of the number of photon
counts. (A) Expected probability distributions
P(n) for five cases of equal mean count rate, n̄
= 1.0. The open symbols correspond to solutions of single species
but with different values of the mean count number per particle
qT. The solid line is calculated for a mixture of two
species, one with qT = 0.5 and the other with qT =
8.0. (B) Measured distributions of the number of
photon counts. The data for three samples are presented: the solutions
of 0.5 nM Rh6G, 1.5 nM tetramethylrhodamine (TMR), and a mixture of
them (0.8 nM TMR, 0.1 nM Rh6G). The time window of 40 μs was used,
and the number of photon counts was determined 1,250,000 times in each
of the 50s experiments. (C) Weighted residuals from
multicomponent fit analysis of the count number distribution measured
for Rh6G. (D) Results of ITR analysis applied to the
curves shown in Fig. 1B. The dashed lines correspond to the solutions
of single dyes (Rh6G and TMR), and the solid line corresponds to their
mixture. The ordinates give the mean number of particles within the
confocal volume element (left, single dyes; right, mixture).