What is lock-in amplifier?
Lock-in amplifiers are used to detect and measure very small AC signalsall the way down to a few nanovolts. Accurate measurements may be made even when the small signal is obscured by noise sources many thousands of times larger.
What is phase sensitive detection?
Phase-sensitive detection is a powerful method for seeing very small signals in the presence of overwhelming noise. Developed in the 1960's, it's become a ubiquitous experimental technique, and the lock-in amplifier1 is the instrument which makes this method possible.