Company Blog

Focus on Recovering Signals in Optical Experiments - Q&A

23.11.2020

Recovering Signals

This blog post accompanies the webinar “Focus on signal processing in optical experiments". Thank you to everybody who joined the live event and participated actively by voting in the poll and asking so many relevant questions. The answers to all questions are provided at the end of this blog post...

Getting Additional Insights into Your Setup with the MF-DIG Option

08.11.2020

DIG Schematics

Lock-in amplifiers are at their best when rejecting the noise and increasing the signal-to-noise ratio. When the setup is well characterized the measurements are carried out at a single frequency and measured against external parameters. Throughout the measurement, detailed noise spectra reveal critical changes in the physics of the experiment...

Retrieving the Carrier Frequency of Phase-Modulated or Carrier-Suppressed Signals with Costas Loops

08.11.2020

Costas Loop

Phase-locked loops (PLLs) are widely used to recover the frequency of a carrier signal in many detection systems such as lock-in amplifiers and data receivers. To properly lock to the carrier phase and extract its frequency, a clean reference separate from the signal or a pilot tone within the signal must be provided for the PLL...

Boost Your SPM Applications - Q&A

19.10.2020

Boost SPM Webinar Screenshot

Following up on the webinar dedicated to Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) techniques, I'd like to post a short summary in this blog as well as answers to most questions raised during this event. The recording of this webinar can be found on the Zurich Instruments YouTube channel here...

Measuring Dielectric Properties of Materials with Varying Thickness

30.09.2020

MFIA Dielectrics

A dielectric is traditionally defined as an electrical insulator with very poor conductivity at DC. However, because of its polarizability, charges can be stored in a dielectric material, typically in the format of dipoles, in the low and medium AC frequency range.

Inductance of an SMD Shunt Resistor

15.09.2020

Plotter

The reliable and accurate measurement of current is critical to optimising any electronic system. The most commonly used method to measure current flows within a circuit is by using a low-value resistor mounted in series, and then measuring the voltage drop across this resistor. These current sensing resistors are commonly...

A Fast and Scalable Approach to Controlling 100 Qubits and More - Q&A

02.09.2020

100qubits

On August 20, we talked about our fast and scalable approach to controlling 100 qubits and more. The webinar was recorded and is available on demand here . In the first part of the webinar, we covered our fast approach and explained how to get a handle on the complexity...

The Many Applications of the MF-MD Multi-Demodulator Option

24.08.2020

Demodulator Schematic

In my research days, lock-in amplifiers were a standard fixture in a transport measurement setup, and there were many of them. Each lock-in measured one signal in the experiment. Adding more lock-in amplifiers in the setup was the only way to learn more about the device transport properties, but this...

Nanoscale Light-Matter Interactions - Q&A

12.08.2020

Nanoscale light-matter interaction screenshot

This blog post answers questions asked by the audience during our webinar "Nanoscale light-matter interactions" hosted by Physics Today and featuring guest speakers Markus Raschke and Samuel Johnson. The webinar was recorded and is available on demand here . Here’s a selection of questions asked during the webinar, which we...

Optimize Signal Acquisition for Optical Measurements - Q&A

08.07.2020

Signal Acquisition

This blog post answers the many appreciated questions asked by the audience during the two recent webinar events "Optimize signal acquisition for optical measurements" and "Optimize signal acquisition for optics and photonics measurements". Both events were recorded and are available here and here . Both webinars covered these points: Lock-in...

Impedance Analysis: Measuring Fast and Low - Q&A

23.06.2020

MFIA Accuracy Chart

This blog post answers the many welcome questions from the audience during the recent webinar "Impedance analysis: measuring fast and low". This webinar covered two distinct and equally important impedance measurement challenges...

Multiplexed Impedance Measurements

17.06.2020

Multiplexed Impedance Measurement

Introduction Having more impedance measurement channels is often desirable in many applications. For instance, in electrical impedance tomography (EIT), it is common to have many channels to achieve enough spatial resolution (144 electrodes on the thorax) [1]. Naturally, this can be done with multiple instruments working together. When synchronization is...

Optimize Signal Acquisition for Optics and Photonics Measurements

16.06.2020

Filter Bandwidth

This blog post accompanies the two webinars "Optimize signal acquisition for optical measurements" and "Optimize signal acquisition for optics and photonics measurements". Thank you to everybody who joined the live event and participated actively by asking so many questions. In this blog post, I want to summarize the content of...

Humidity Sensors – Resistive or Capacitive?

15.06.2020

Humidity Sensing

Humidity sensors (also known as hygrometers) are commonly used in applications ranging from everyday sensing to lab research. They are typically placed in an enclosed chamber, such as a car or a glovebox, where they are used to check whether the humidity is healthy for humans or materials inside.

Nanostructure Transport Characterization - Q&A

25.05.2020

Transport Characterization

Thank you to everyone who attended the "Nanostructure transport characterization" Webinar. It was my first webinar and it was an amazing experience for the whole team. We received a lot of questions and in this post I will answer most of them by grouping them into four categories: Measurement tools...