Physics of a Flow Cytometer

Abstract

Now that you are familiar with the various types of flow cytometers, we will go over how the most common type of flow cytometer, fluidic-based flow cytometers, works. In this chapter, we will touch on the physics of flow cytometry and how photons of light from fluorochromes are translated into meaningful flow cytometry data plots. We will discuss the nature of the excitation lasers and how they are related to the nature of fluorochromes emitting light. The concepts behind Jablonski diagrams and Stokes Shift will be highlighted in this chapter. The rest of the book will focus on the use of fluidic-based flow cytometers. We will cover the three main components of the flow cytometer including the fluidics, optics, and electronics.