Simulation of convoluted and exact emission anisotropy decay profiles

We have Simulated the convolution of the emission anisotropy decay function with both a delta-pulse excitation function (exact solution) and a pulse function of either Gaussian or other functional form. It can be readily shown that convolution with a pulse of finite width leads to lower r0 values (anisotropy at time zero). Especially in the case of short-lived fluorescence, it can be demonstrated that the convoluted anisotropy lags behind the exact anisotropy leading to longer apparent rotational correlation times. Contour plots of r corrections as a function of both fluorescence lifetime and rotational correlation time were constructed for two different pulse profiles. Inspection of these contour diagrams can lead to an estimate of the relative error involved, when anisotropy data are not deconvoluted.