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Stable Synchronization over 52 Meters and 14 Days

23.08.2023

The Zurich Instruments Quantum Computing Control System provides reliable and precise timing synchronization out of the box. But what does reliable synchronization really mean? Here, we show results from two experiments that put the synchronization stability to a hard test. First, we synchronize two SHFQC Qubit Controllers across 52 meters synchronization distance to conduct a photon pitch-and-catch experiment on a real quantum chip. Second, we assess the long-term stability of such long-distance synchronization links for a full 14-day period.

Microwave Measurements of Chiral Edge States of the Quantum Anomalous Hall Effect

23.11.2023

Transmission measurement of different harmonics through chiral edge states.

Chiral 1D edge states of the quantum anomalous Hall effect can be used as “optical fibers” for electrons. To gain a deeper understanding of their properties, the dispersion relation and the attenuation of edge excitations in the microwave regime can be investigated. In this blog post, we present measurements that were performed in the lab of Prof. Bocquillon using our SHFLI 8.5 GHz Lock-in Amplifier.

Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi

09.11.2023

MFLI lock-in amplifier with the Raspberry Pi

Do you want to use a Raspberry Pi to control your Zurich Instruments devices? Although instruments are traditionnaly hooked up to a measurement computer, some applications might require a computer with a smaller footprint or lower power requirement. This blog post will walk you through the necessary steps and help get you started.

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

10.10.2023

Webinar: Boost your Signal-to-Noise Ratio with Lock-in Amplifiers

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.

Capacitance Transients at Variable Temperature

05.10.2023

LabOne DAQ Module showing capacitive transients

This blog post shows the ease of set-up of the MFIA to measure capacitive transients for self-build DLTS. The combination of MFIA plus third-party temperature stage brings the possibility to tune your DLTS measurement parameters to suit your sample. Home-building your DLTS system with the MFIA gives you flexibility and the freedom to choose the test signal amplitude, frequency and even the mode of stressing pulse. 

Different Views on Quality Factor and Equivalent Circuit Modeling

21.09.2023

MFIA front

For ease of communication, scientific nomenclature is often named as short as possible. Unfortunately, sometimes this convention leads to different terms sharing the same name, which may lead to confusion. Taking piezoelectric impedance and dielectric impedance as examples in this blog post, we will clarify 2 ambiguous terms, the quality...

Fast PLL Optimization for High Q Resonators Without Frequency Sweeps

19.09.2023

PID error before and after optimization

Resonators with very high Q factor are notoriously complicated to lock because of the steep slope phase at resonance. Precise determination of phase setpoint and gains can be highly time consuming since very high frequency resolution is required. This blog explains how to optimize the PLL by starting with an educated guess and optimizing everything in closed-loop, which is much faster than conventional open-loop characterizations.

How to Measure Allan Variance with Zurich Instruments Lock-in Amplifiers

28.08.2023

Allan Variation measurement with Zurich Instruments lock-in amplifiers.

Any measurement resolution is limited by random fluctuations, "noise", of the measured quantities. Practical systems also might experience variations of parameters causing "drifts" in the measurements. Various sources of such noises and drifts may take different time or frequency dependencies. To understand how such fluctuations affect one's measurement, a careful analysis of such noise and drifts must be performed. Discrimination of such noise sources might be performed by performing Allan deviation measurement of discretely sample data. In this blog post, we discuss how to easily measure Allan variance with our Zurich Instruments lock-in amplifier.

Resonator Characterization via the Pound-Drever-Hall Method

21.08.2023

PDH Block diagram

This blog discusses methods for measuring the frequency fluctuations and quality factor, 𝑄, of a resonator. Resonators are physical systems that naturally oscillate at a well-defined frequency. At this resonant frequency, energy exchanges periodically between two forms, for example, kinetic and spring energy as in a scanning probe microscope’s cantilever...

Speeding up NV Center Measurements with Real-time Control

21.08.2023

Experiment conceptual diagram

Real-time feedback control can often speed up quantum experiments, increase fidelity, or enable new methods. One example is adaptive sensing and characterization, which uses feedback to minimize the number of measurements needed to estimate a given quantity. Our customers in the group of Prof. Cristian Bonato at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, Scotland) have recently demonstrated this method on an NV-center based spin qubit and achieved an increase in speed by up to an order of magnitude compared to non-adaptive approaches in the estimation of qubit decoherence timescales.

Accurate Impedance Measurements Despite High Parasitic Resistance

13.07.2023

MFIA with two MFITFs to simulate a high-resistance measurement path

This blog post takes a look at impedance measurements in the presence of a high parasitic resistance, and shows that you can accurately measure small impedance DUTs even in the presence of a high in-series resistance such as with an unavoidable resistance in the measurement fixture, cables or sample stage. We show that thanks to the high dynamic reserve of the MFIA (and MFLI with MF-IA option), coupled with the user compensation feature, accurate impedance measurements can be taken even in the presence of a high in-series resistance such as 1 MΩ.

Quantum Materials: from Characterization to Resonator Measurements - Q&A

26.06.2023

QT Webinar Physic Today

In this webinar, we discussed transport measurements on materials for quantum computing, why studying resonators accelerates development of materials used for quantum computing by yielding a wealth of information, and how to measure resonators effectively with the Pound-Drever-Hall method. The recording of the full webinar can be found here...

Setting Up the UHFLI Boxcar Averager for Pulsed Laser Experiments

21.06.2023

teaser

Boxcar averagers (sometimes also known with the name of “gated integrators”) are instruments used to measure signals stemming from low-duty-cycle experiments. The information contained in low-duty-cycle pulsed signals is concentrated within a short time duration; thus, the idea behind the boxcar averager is to record the signal only during the...

Detecting Covid Virus Using an MFIA Impedance Analyzer

14.06.2023

MFIA

In the past few years, the spread of COVID-19 pandemic has led to a tremendous development in detecting SARS-CoV-2 (and HCoV-229E) viruses. Whereas polymerase chain reaction-based fluorescence is known to be accurate, it is time-consuming and requires sophisticated setup and expertise. On the other hand, lateral flow assay (LFA) is...

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