Full SMS HDF5 file specification (Version 1.08)

HDF5 file

Attributes

‘# Particles’ (int):

The number of particles in the file.

‘Version’ (string):

File version.

Objects

‘Particle <#>’ (HDF5 Group):

An object corresponding to the measurement of a particle, <#> is a 1-indexed integer. See Particle group below.

Particle group

Attributes

‘Date’ (string):

The date of the measurement. uses the format “Tuesday, June 27, 2023 11:22 AM”

‘Description’(string):

A general description of the measurement.

‘Has Power Measurement?’ (bool):

Whether the laser power was measured and saved for this particle.

‘Intensity?’ (int):

Whether intensity (photon arrival times) was measured for this particle.

‘RS Coord. (um)’ (size 2 array of 64-bit float):

The raster scan coordinates fo the particle (x, y).

‘Spectra?’ (int):

Whether a spectral time trace was measured for this particle.

‘User’ (string):

The name of the user who performed the measurement.

Objects

‘Absolute Times (ns)’ (HDF5 dataset (array of int)):

Absolute photon arrival times. Has Photon times attributes.

‘Absolute Times 2 (ns)’ (HDF5 dataset (array of int)):

Absolute photon arrival times in second channel. Has Photon times attributes.

‘Intensity trace (cps)’ (HDF5 dataset (2D array of float)):

Time-binned intensity values. Time is in seconds, intensity is in counts per second. Has no attributes.

‘Micro Times (ns)’ (HDF5 dataset (array of float)):

Relative photon arrival times. Has Photon times attributes.

‘Micro Times 2 (ns)’ (HDF5 dataset (array of float)):

Relative photon arrival times in second channel. Has Photon times attributes.

‘Raster Scan’ (HDF5 dataset (array of float)):

Raster scan image array. Has Raster Scan attributes.

‘Spectra (countss)’ (HDF5 dataset (array of float)):

Spectral time trace (wavelength x time). Has Spectra attributes.

Dataset attributes

Photon times

‘# Photons’ (int):

Number of photon times in the dataset, i.e. size of the dataset.

‘bh Card’ (string):

Name of the TCSPC channel, e.g. the name of the card used for that channel or could be any other feature distinguishing the two channels.

Raster Scan

‘Int. Time (ms/um)’ (float):

The integration time for the raster scan in milliseconds/micrometer.

‘Pixels per Line’ (int):

The number of pixels per line of the raster scan (also the number of lines since the scan is square).

‘Range (um)’ (float):

The linear size of the raster scan in both dimensions, in micrometer.

‘XStart (um)’ (float)

The microscope stage start X position (lower left of scan).

‘YStart (um)’ (float)

The microscope stage start Y position (lower left of scan).

‘bh Card’ (string):

Name of the TCSPC channel used for the scan, similar to the attribute in Photon times.

Spectra

‘Exposure Time (s)’ (float):

CCD exposure time.

‘Spectra Abs. Times (s)’ (array of float):

Time steps of recorded spectra.

‘Wavelengths’ (array of float):

Wavelengths of measured spectral data in nm.