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Recorded Webinars

Lock-in Amplifier or Boxcar Averager? Choosing the Right Measurement Tool for Periodic Signals

Lock-in Amplifier or Boxcar Averager? Choosing the Right Measurement Tool for Periodic Signals
November 2nd, 2023
Speakers: Gustavo Ciardi

Unlock the potential of your periodic signal measurements in our webinar 'Lock-In Amplifier or Boxcar Averager? Choosing the Right Measurement Tool for Periodic Signals.'

When it comes to analyzing periodic signals, selecting the appropriate measurement tool is crucial to achieving accurate and meaningful results. In this webinar, we delve into the theory behind these two powerful techniques, lock-in amplification and boxcar averaging, to help you make informed decisions in your measurement endeavors.

We gained a deeper understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, and the scientific contexts in which they excel, to empower you with the knowledge needed to maximize your signal-to-noise ratio, ensuring the highest precision in your measurements.

The webinar covered:

- Theory into Practice: Gain a solid understanding of the theory behind Lock-In Amplifiers and Boxcar Averagers, and learn when and where to apply each technique effectively.

- Maximizing Signal-to-Noise Ratio: Discover strategies to optimize your measurements, ensuring the highest precision and clarity in your results.

- Live Demonstration: Witness the power of digital instruments as we showcase real-time applications of both Boxcar Averaging and Lock-In Amplifiers. See how these tools can unlock valuable insights from periodic signals, making your research more efficient and effective.

Read our blog post for answers to the questions from the live audience.

Boost Your Signal-to-Noise Ratio with Lock-in Detection

Boost Your Signal-To-Noise Ratio with Lock-in Detection
September 7th, 2023
Speakers: Heidi Potts

New technologies based on smaller and ever-more powerful devices often require precise measurements of tiny signals that are buried in noise.

In this tutorial, we learned how to use lock-in amplifiers and optimize measurement parameters to get the best signal-to-noise ratio. We discussed three common use cases: optics and photonics experiments, material characterization, and resonator characterization. Finally, we looked at more advanced techniques, such as double modulation and multi-frequency measurements.

Read our blog post for the summary of the event and answers to the questions from the live audience.

Quantum Materials: from Characterization to Resonator Measurements

Quantum Materials: from Characterization to Resonator Measurements
June 13th, 2023

Would you like to understand and address materials losses that are a key obstacle for the next generation of quantum technology? This webinar details how low-noise measurements with lock-in amplifiers can help you optimize your materials. Jim Phillips explains Hall measurements, RF reflectometry for quantum dot stability diagrams, and the Pound-Drever-Hall (PDH) technique for resonator characterization.

Professor Corey Rae McRae of CU Boulder and NIST Boulder dives into the use of microwave resonators as a tool to better understand superconducting qubit materials at millikelvin temperatures and ultralow powers. We show recent results using PDH to perform resonator center frequency and Q-factor measurements faster than is possible with the traditional VNA method.

Read our blog post for the summary of the event and answers to the questions from the live audience.

Boost your Optical Signal Detection with Lock-in Amplifiers and Boxcar Averagers

Boost your Optical Signal Detection with Lock-in Amplifiers and Boxcar Averagers
November 8th, 2022

Would you like to boost your signal-to-noise ratio, but don’t know how? Or do you already use Lock-in amplifiers and boxcar averagers but would like to know more about the theory and practice, while also learning some useful tips and tricks?

In this webinar, you learn about the measurement principles of lock-in amplification and boxcar averaging, understand why such instruments are beneficial for capturing small signals in optical experiments, and which applications benefit from the different approaches.

Read our blog post for the summary of the event and answers to the questions from the live audience.

Measure and Generate Periodic Microwave Signals: The GHFLI and SHFLI Launch Event

Measure and Generate Periodic Microwave Signals I Zurich Instruments Webinar
October 6th, 2022

As the trend towards smaller devices and higher frequencies continues, faster reliable measurements become more and more important. The GHFLI and SHFLI Microwave Lock-in Amplifiers combine the measurement speed and high noise rejection of lock-in amplifiers with a full microwave measurement suite making them ideal solutions for scientists and engineers working at these frequencies.

This virtual launch event included a presentation of the instruments, a practical demonstration and live Q&A sessions. Read our blog post for the summary of the event and answers to the questions from the live audience.

From Charge Dynamics in Solids to Single-Molecule Spectroscopy with SPM

From Charge Dynamics in Solids to Single-Molecule Spectroscopy with SPM I Zurich Instruments Webinar
April 28th, 2022
Speakers: Romain Stomp

In this video, Prof. Peter Grutter provides an overview of his current research aimed at developing ultrafast laser methods combined with AFM to gain a better understanding of charge dynamics at the molecular time and length scales. He then presents his most recent results on mechanically detecting single electrons for single-molecule spectroscopy. The outlook of his talk addresses plans to adapt these methods to elucidate the energetics of organic charge transfer systems as well as the quantum properties of single and coupled dopants in silicon. Following Prof. Grutter's talk, Application Scientist Romain Stomp illustrates how the discussed methods can be implemented with Zurich Instruments' rich toolbox. The answers to the questions asked during the live event are summarized in this blog post.

Interfaces: How They Make or Break a Nanodevice

Interfaces: How They Make or Break a Nanodevice | Zurich Instruments Webinar
March 29th, 2022

As the size of electronic devices goes down to few nanometers, interfaces become increasingly relevant and often dominate and interfere with a device's performance. Hybrid devices are a particularly good example, because they rely on interfacing materials with different physical properties to control superconductivity, spin or other carrier characteristics in the active parts of the device. The performance of these structures depends critically on their reliable fabrication and interface characterization. In this webinar, Jelena Trbovic and Heidi Potts take you from general interface considerations to nanodevice characterization with lock-in amplifiers: you learn how to set up low-noise measurements and how to characterize devices on ultrafast timescales using RF reflectometry. The answers to the questions asked during the live event are summarized in this blog post.

Quantum Material Characterization for Streamlined Qubit Development

Quantum Material Characterization for Streamlined Qubit Development | Zurich Instruments Webinar
November 11th, 2021

In this webinar, Ed, Jim, Jelena and Clemens look at how lock-in amplifiers offer a prime way to probe and understand material properties relevant for qubit coherence while keeping measurement times and complexity to a minimum. They discuss the basic working principles of semi- and superconducting qubits and demonstrate how to characterize frequency and loss fluctuations in readout resonators, as also summarized in this blog post.

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