In this report, we focus on the consequences of controllability and observability on the number of distinctexponential terms in the fluorescence decay and on the identifiability analysis of the photophysical model ofintermolecular two-state excited-state processes. Controllability and observability prove to be useful conceptsin photophysics for exploring methodically the conditions under which intermolecular two-state excited-stateprocesses lead to single-exponential fluorescence
-response functions. A detailed discussion on the distinctio
nof the possible origins of mo
noexponential fluorescence decays is presented. We also show that the similaritytransformation approach to identifiability leads to erroneous conclusions concerning which model parameterscan be identified if this photophysical system is
not controllable or
not observable. The results obtained forthis relatively simple photophysical system can be extended in a systematic way to more complicatedphotophysical models.