Abstract
A method of internal calibration is developed that allows one to ascertain the monexponentiality of a reference compound fluorescence decay and to determine its lifetime with high accuracy. It is shown that when the fluorescence decays of several samples are analyzed as a function of the reference lifetime, which is used to calculate the ‘‘lamp profile,’’ all the data are consistent with each other only if the fluorescence of all the used compounds decays monoexponentially and the correct lifetime for p-terphenyl, which is used as reference compound, is between 1.02 and 1.03 ns.