An apparatus for analyzing an optical signal decay, comprising: a source of a beam of pulsed optical energy; a sample holder configured to expose a sample to said beam; a detector, the detector comprising a number of spectral detection channels, said channels being sensitive to distinct wavelength sections of the electromagnetic spectrum and being configured to detect optical signals resulting from interactions between said beam and said sample, said channels being further configured to convert said optical signals into respective electrical signals; a first optical path from said source of said beam to said sample; a second optical path from said sample to said detector; and a signal processing module, configured to execute a lifetime analysis algorithm configured to: receive and digitize said electrical signals from said detector, wherein each digital signal comprises a plurality of pulse signal segments and each pulse signal segment comprises a plurality of digitization elements; segment the plurality of pulse signal segments into individual pulse signal segments, wherein each digitization element of each individual pulse signal segment has a digitization index; for each digitization index, mathematically add the respective digitization element of the plurality of pulse signal segments to form a decay supercurve (1165; 1210), said supercurve (1165; 1210) comprising a number of lifetime components, each lifetime component having a time constant and a relative intensity contribution to said supercurve; allocate individual lifetime components of said supercurve to discrete bins of predetermined time constants; and quantify the relative intensity contribution of individual lifetime components to said supercurve. a source of a beam of pulsed optical energy; a sample holder configured to expose a sample to said beam; a detector, the detector comprising a number of spectral detection channels, said channels being sensitive to distinct wavelength sections of the electromagnetic spectrum and being configured to detect optical signals resulting from interactions between said beam and said sample, said channels being further configured to convert said optical signals into respective electrical signals; a first optical path from said source of said beam to said sample; a second optical path from said sample to said detector; and a signal processing module, configured to execute a lifetime analysis algorithm configured to: receive and digitize said electrical signals from said detector, wherein each digital signal comprises a plurality of pulse signal segments and each pulse signal segment comprises a plurality of digitization elements; segment the plurality of pulse signal segments into individual pulse signal segments, wherein each digitization element of each individual pulse signal segment has a digitization index; for each digitization index, mathematically add the respective digitization element of the plurality of pulse signal segments to form a decay supercurve (1165; 1210), said supercurve (1165; 1210) comprising a number of lifetime components, each lifetime component having a time constant and a relative intensity contribution to said supercurve; allocate individual lifetime components of said supercurve to discrete bins of predetermined time constants; and quantify the relative intensity contribution of individual lifetime components to said supercurve. receive and digitize said electrical signals from said detector, wherein each digital signal comprises a plurality of pulse signal segments and each pulse signal segment comprises a plurality of digitization elements; segment the plurality of pulse signal segments into individual pulse signal segments, wherein each digitization element of each individual pulse signal segment has a digitization index; for each digitization index, mathematically add the respective digitization element of the plurality of pulse signal segments to form a decay supercurve (1165; 1210), said supercurve (1165; 1210) comprising a number of lifetime components, each lifetime component having a time constant and a relative intensity contribution to said supercurve; allocate individual lifetime components of said supercurve to discrete bins of predetermined time constants; and quantify the relative intensity contribution of individual lifetime components to said supercurve.