Software photon correlator and measurement method thereof

Abstract

The invention discloses a software photon correlator and a measurement method thereof. The correlator comprises a photomultiplier, a photon collector and a PC terminal correlation operation module, wherein the photomultiplier is used for converting received scattered light signals into photon pulse signals; the photon collector includes a photon counting module and a FIFO memory; the photon counting module adopts a double-counting mode to alternatively count the photon pulse signals of the photomultiplier and the FIFO memory receives counting data of the photon counting module; and the PC terminal correlation operation module receives parts of counting data of the FIFO memory of the photon collector and carries out correlation operation. Two counters alternatively count so as to realize uninterrupted counting of a photon pulse, and a FIFO mechanism of the FIFO memory is used; after one sampling period, one piece of data is filled in the FIFO memory, and when the data in the FIFO reaches a certain data amount, one part of data is taken away by a PC terminal operation module and correlation calculating is performed; uninterrupted counting of a lot of photon numbers is realized and a PC-terminal high operation capability is used to increase a real-time operation rate.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to the technical field of photon correlation spectrum measurement, in particular to a software photon correlator and a measurement method. Background technique [0002] Photon correlators are devices that extract the correlation function of scattered light signals. For statistical and data processing of the temporal distribution of photon pulses. A photon correlator counts the photon pulses received within the delay time every time a delay time t passes. Obtain the count data n(kt) after k times of delay, and use it to multiply and accumulate with the delayed data of itself or other signals. Thus, an autocorrelation function of light intensity with respect to time is obtained. [0003] For this calculation, hardware correlators and software correlators can be used. [0004] For the hardware correlator, the correlation calculation of the photon pulse signal is completed by the hardware circuit. [0005] For example, in Patent ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0008] 1. It is impossible to go back to the original data before the relevant operation;

[0009] 2. It is difficult to adjust the sampling time, and there are often only a few typical values ​​​​to choose from

[0010] 3. The more channels there are, the more hardware resources will be consumed by adding channels

[0014] This makes the processing time required by the software correlator longer than the processing time required by the hardware, and when a large number of photon numbers are read for calculation, the photon measurement will be suspended, resulting in low loading efficiency and poor real-time performance

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