iStar sCMOS Demo Exercises: External Triggering And Troubleshooting

Abstract

The ns time scale measurement capability of the iStar intensified cameras allows for increasingly complex and novel measurements synchronized with a lab full of other instruments. This video is made to introduce beginners to the requirements of externally triggering instruments in ns time scale experiments and to gradually build to quite advanced ways of using iStar cameras for faster data acquisition with higher SNR.

Learning Objectives

• Provide guided demonstrations that users can follow-along in their lab.
• Introduce the synchronization of instruments with TTL pulses.
• Learn different modes of operation of the iStar cameras when external triggering including: single scan, accumulate, kinetic series, gate step, and integrate on chip (IOC) modes.

Chapters

1. (00m00s) Title and intro
2. (00m43s) Background: How instruments synchronize with each other and iStar components. Learn about coaxial cable composition and connectors, TTL and other voltage pulses, common instruments iStars are used with, and how all of these instrumental parts can interact with each other in complex ways.
3. (18m39s) Single scan acquisition mode and instrumental setup. Learn about how to visualize acquisition timing with an oscilloscope in a follow-along demonstration.
4. (32m31s) Accumulate acquisition mode follow-along demonstration.
5. (34m26s) Kinetic series acquisition mode follow-along demonstration.
6. (37m11s) Gate step acquisition mode follow-along demonstration.
7. (42m55s) Integrate On Chip (IOC) acquisition mode follow-along demonstration (and comparison to accumulate acquisition mode).