Hydraharp400 controller¶

This code is strongly based on the code from Colin Brosseau, licensed as BSD 3-Clause “New” or “Revised” License:

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The original code was taken on Fri Nov 10 15:36:48 2017 from Github (https://github.com/ColinBrosseau/Hydraharp400), changed by Irina Komen to work within hyperion.

class hyperion.controller.picoquant.hydraharp.Hydraharp(config)¶

Hydraharp 400 controller

Initializes communication with Hydraharp400 device.

Parameters:	devidx (int) – index of the device mode (string) – operation mode, can be: ‘Histogram’(default), ‘T2’,’T3’,’Continuous’ clock (string) – source of the clock, can be: ‘External’(default), ‘Internal’

calibrate()¶

Calibrate the device; no calibration file needed, this is an internal function.

Parameters:	devidx (int) – Index of the device (default 0)

clear_histogram()¶: Clear histogram from memory

count_rate(channel=0)¶

Current count rate of the input channel.
Allow at least 100 ms after HH_Initialize or HH_SetSyncDivider to get a stable rate meter readings.
Similarly, wait at least 100 ms to get a new reading. This is the gate time of the counters.

Parameters:	channel (int) – input channel index; in our case 0 or 1

return count rate: measured counts per second on one of the channels

ctc_status¶

Acquisition time state.

Return status:	False: acquisition time still running; True: acquisition time has ended

error_string¶: Error messages.

finalize()¶: Closes and releases the device for use by other programs.

flags¶: Use the predefined bit mask values in hhdefin.h (e.g. FLAG_OVERFLOW) to extract individual bits through a bitwise AND.

hardware_info¶: Information about the device.

histogram(channel=0, clear=True)¶

Histogram of channel.
Have to use this one only after starting a measurement!
The histogram is always taken between one of the input channels and the sync channel.
To perform start-stop measurements, connect one of the photon detectors to the sync channel.

Return histogram:
Parameters:	channel (int) – input channel index; in our case 0 or 1 clear (bool) – denotes the action upon completing the reading process; False keeps the histogram in the acquisition buffer; True clears the buffer
	array with the histogram data; size is determined by histogram_length, default 2^16

histogram_offset(offset=0)¶

Histogram time offset in ps.

(Documentation say ns, but it’s most probably a typo.)

Parameters:	offset (int) – Histogram time offset in ps; 0, … 500000

initialize(mode='Histogram', clock='Internal')¶

Initialize the device.

Parameters:	devidx (int) – index of the device mode (string) – operation mode, can be: ‘Histogram’(default), ‘T2’,’T3’,’Continuous’ clock (string) – source of the clock, can be: ‘External’(default), ‘Internal’

input_CFD(channel=0, level=50, zerox=0)¶

UNUSED
Parameters of the input CFD (constant fraction divicriminator).
Values are given as a positive number although the electrical signals are actually negative.

Parameters:	channel (int) – input channel index; in our case 0 or 1 level (int) – CFD discriminator level in millivolts zerox (int) – CFD zero cross level in millivolts

input_offset(channel=0, offset=0)¶

Input offset in time

Parameters:	channel (int) – input channel index; in our case 0 or 1 offset (int) – time offset in ps -99999, …, 99999

library_version¶: Version of the library.

load_config(filename=None)¶

Loads the yml configuration file of default instrument settings that probably nobody is going to change.

File are in folder /controller/picoquant/Hydraharp_controller.yml.

Parameters:	filename (string) – the name of the configuration file

number_input_channels¶: Number of installed input channels, in our case should be two (plus sync).

resolution¶

Resolution (in ps) at the current binning.

Return resolution:
	resolution in ps at current binning

start_measurement(acquisition_time=1000)¶

Start acquisition.

Pay attention: acquisition_time is in ms!

Parameters:	acquisition_time (int) – Acquisition time in ms; 0.001, … 360000

stop_measurement()¶: Stop acquisition.

Can be used before the acquisition time expires.

stop_overflow(stop_at_overflow=0, stop_count=0)¶

Determines if a measurement run will stop if any channel reaches the maximum set by stopcount.

In case of False, measurement will continue but counts above stop_count in any bin will be clipped.

Parameters:	stop_at_overflow (bool) – True is stop at overflow, False is do not stop (default True) stop_count (int) – Maximum counts at which the program stops because of overflow; 1, … 4294967295 (default 4294967295)

sync_CFD(level=50, zerox=0)¶

UNUSED
Parameters of the sync CFD (constant fraction divicriminator).
Values are given as a positive number although the electrical signals are actually negative.

Parameters:	level (int) – CFD discriminator level in millivolts zerox (int) – CFD zero cross level in millivolts

sync_divider(divider=1)¶

Divider of the sync:

Must be used to keep the effective sync rate at values ≤ 12.5 MHz.

It should only be used with sync sources of stable period. Using a larger divider than strictly necessary does not do great harm but it may result in slightly larger timing

jitter. The readings obtained with HH_GetCountRate are internally corrected for the divider setting and deliver the external (undivided) rate. The sync divider should not be changed while a measurement is running.

Parameters:	devidx (int) – Index of the device (default 0) divider (int) – 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16

sync_offset(value=0)¶

Sync offset in time

Parameters:	offset (int) – time offset in ps -99999, …, 99999

sync_rate()¶

Current sync rate

Return sync rate:
	measured counts per second on the sync input channel

warnings¶

Warnings, bitwise encoded (see phdefin.h).

You must call HH_GetCoutRate and HH_GetCoutRate for all channels prior to this call.

Return warming:	warning message

warnings_text¶

Human readable warnings

Return warning:	warning in readable text

class hyperion.controller.picoquant.hydraharp.Measurement_mode¶: An enumeration.

class hyperion.controller.picoquant.hydraharp.Reference_clock¶: An enumeration.

hyperion.controller.picoquant.hydraharp.c_int_p¶: alias of hyperion.controller.picoquant.hydraharp.LP_c_int