Digital storage oscilloscopes in the undergraduate laboratory

Abstract

Digital storage oscilloscopes (DSOs) are now easily available to undergraduate laboratories. In many cases, a DSO can replace a data-acquisition system. Seven such experiments/demonstrations are considered: (i) families of I–V characteristics of electronic devices (bipolar junction transistor), (ii) the V–I curve of a high-temperature superconductor (critical currents), (iii) the speed of electromagnetic waves and losses (in a coaxial cable), (iv) diffraction patterns (one and two slits), (v) the photoelectric effect (the Einstein equation), (vi) two variants of the Franck–Hertz experiment (with a Franck–Hertz tube from PHYWE and with a thyratron), and (vii) the structure of the video signal. All the experiments are performed without a computer or additional software. An exception is the experiment with a coaxial cable, where it is necessary to build graphs of the results obtained.

A laboratory course on detector readout for undergraduate students of experimental physics

“…We equipped the laboratory with the RTE1024 scopes from Rohde & Schwarz with the option RTE-B6, arbitrary signal generator, which make the instrument perfect for our experiences. Modern scopes are quite complete instruments with which an almost full analysis of the acquisition chain is possible [5].…”

Open source application for mobility measurements on violins

“…The main advantage to isolate the acquisition stage is that its task can be performed in many ways. There are data acquisition cards to be attached to a computer, but a highly recommended option is using a dual‐channel digital oscilloscope for data acquisition because: it is essential equipment for an experimental laboratory , so it is feasible that someone interested in a spectrum analyzer has already an oscilloscope; the options to configure an oscilloscope (as sampling frequency, triggering, time averaging) result very useful to capture the desired data for vibratory analysis; it provides an extra screen for real‐time evaluation of captured signals; if an oscilloscope is not available, buying a new unit is feasible because its cost can be less than the cost of an acquisition card, and much less than of a dual‐channel spectrum analyzer. …”

“…A first impression could be that once the time domain data have been recorded, for example, using an oscilloscope , the signal processing required to obtain a transfer function could be quickly performed; but calculating “clean” transfer functions is not one‐step procedure (see a noisy attempt to obtain a bridge mobility of a violin—v294—only dividing the spectrum of the velocity between the spectrum of the force, Figure ). Certainly, there is much theoretical information about how vibratory data must be successfully processed, e.g., ref.…”

An innovative experiment on superconductivity, based on video analysis and non-expensive data acquisition

“…As a useful didactical tip, it is worth observing that the Data Acquisition Module used in this experiment, although not very expensive, could not be easily available in a didactical laboratory. This issue can be partially avoided by using a standard two-channels digitalstoring oscilloscope [31] and by connecting the four coils two by two in series, so that: signals from coils 1 and 3 add in-phase (say A the resulting signal) while signals from central coils 2 and 4 add out-of-phase (i.e. subtract, say signal B).…”