There are two main assaying techniques: heterogeneous and homogeneous. If two lanthanide chelates are used in the analysis one after the other—it is called heterogeneous assaying. The first analyte is linked to a specific binding agent on a solid support such as a polymer and then another reaction couples the first poorly luminescent lanthanide complex with a new better one. This tedious method is used because the second more luminescent compound would not bind without the first analyte already present. Subsequent time resolved detection of the metal-centered luminescent probe yields the desired signal. Antigens, steroids and hormones are routinely assayed with heterogeneous techniques. Homogeneous assays rely on direct coupling of the lanthanide label with an organic acceptor.
The relaxation of excited molecules states often occurs by the emission of light which is called fluorescence. There are two ways of measuring this emitted radiation: as a function of frequency (inverse to wavelength) or time.  Conventionally the fluorescence spectrum shows the intensity of fluorescence at different wavelengths, but since lanthanides have relatively long fluorescence decay times (ranging from one microsecond to one millisecond), it is possible to record the fluorescence emission at different decay times from the given excitation energy at time zero. This is called time resolved fluorescence spectroscopy.