SRS Tech Note

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Lock-In Amplifier Basics

April 7, 2020

Lock-In Amplifier Basics

What is a Lock-in Amplifier?
Lock-in amplifiers are used to detect and measure very small ac signals — all 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.

Lock-in amplifiers use a technique known as phase-sensitive detection to single out the
component of the signal at a specific reference frequency and phase. Noise signals at
frequencies other than the reference frequency are rejected and do not affect the
measurement.

Why Use a Lock-In Amplifier?

Let's consider an example. Suppose the signal is a 10 nV sine wave at 10 kHz. Clearly some
amplification is required. A good low noise preamplifier may have about 5 nV/√Hz of input
noise. If the amplifier bandwidth is 100 kHz and the gain is 1000, then we can expect our output
to be 10 μV of signal (10 nV × 1000) and 1.6 mV of broadband noise (5 nV/√Hz × √100 kHz ×
1000). We won't have much luck measuring the output signal unless we single out the
frequency of interest.

If we follow the amplifier with a band pass filter with a Q=100 (a very good filter) centered at
10 kHz, any signal in a 100 Hz bandwidth will be detected (10 kHz/Q). The noise in the filter pass
band will be 50 μV (5 nV/√Hz × √100 Hz × 1000) and the signal will still be 10 μV. The output
noise is still much greater than the signal and an accurate measurement cannot be made.
Further gain will not help the signal to noise problem.

Now try following the amplifier with a phase-sensitive detector (PSD). The PSD can detect the
signal at 10 kHz with a bandwidth as narrow as 0.01 Hz! In this case, the noise in the detection
bandwidth will be only 0.5 μV (5 nV/√Hz × √.01 Hz × 1000) while the signal is still 10 µV. The
signal to noise ratio is now 20 and an accurate measurement of the signal is possible.

What is Phase-Sensitive Detection?

Lock-in measurements require a frequency reference. Typically an experiment is excited at a
fixed frequency (from an optical chopper, oscillator or function generator) and the lock-in
detects the response from the experiment at the reference frequency. In the diagram below,
the reference signal is a square wave at frequency fref. This might be the sync output from a
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function generator. If the sine output from the function generator is used to excite the
experiment, the response might be the signal waveform shown below. The signal is
Vsig sin(ωref t + θsig) where ωref = 2πfref and Vsig is the signal amplitude.

Most lock-in amplifiers have a built-in source and can generate their own sine wave at
frequency fL (see Lock-In Ref below). The lock-in reference is sin(ωLt + θref) where ωL = 2πfL.

External Reference

θ sig
Signal

Lock-In Ref

θref

The lock-in amplifies the input signal and then multiplies it by the reference signal using a
phase-sensitive detector (PSD) or multiplier. The output of the PSD is simply the product of two
sine waves.

Vpsd = Vsig ( [sin(ωrt + θsig)] × [ sin(ωLt + θref)])

= 1/2 Vsig cos([ωr − ωL]t + [θsig − θref]) − 1/2 Vsig cos([ωr + ωL]t + [θsig + θref])

The PSD output is two ac signals, one at the difference frequency (ωr − ωL) and the other at the
sum frequency (ωr + ωL).

If the PSD output is passed through a low pass filter, the ac signals are removed. What will be
left? In the general case, nothing. However, if ωr equals ωL, the difference frequency
component will be a dc signal. In this case, the filtered PSD output will be

Vpsd = 1/2 Vsig cos(θsig − θref)

This is a very nice signal — it is a dc signal proportional to the signal amplitude.

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Narrow Band Detection
Now suppose the input is made up of signal plus noise. The PSD and low pass filter only detect
signals whose frequencies are very close to the lock-in reference frequency. Noise signals at
frequencies far from the reference are attenuated at the PSD output by the low pass filter
(neither ωnoise − ωref nor ωnoise + ωref are close to dc). Noise at frequencies very close to the
reference frequency will result in very low frequency ac outputs from the PSD (|ωnoise − ωref| is
small). Their attenuation depends upon the low pass filter bandwidth and roll-off. A narrower
bandwidth will remove noise sources very close to the reference frequency, a wider bandwidth
allows these signals to pass. The low pass filter bandwidth determines the bandwidth of
detection. Only the signal at the reference frequency will result in a true dc output and be
unaffected by the low pass filter. This is the signal we want to measure.

Where Does the Lock-In Reference Come From?

We need to make the lock-in reference the same as the signal frequency, i.e. ωr = ωL. Not only
do the frequencies have to be the same, the phase between the signals cannot change with
time, otherwise cos(θsig − θref) will change and Vpsd will not be a dc signal. In other words, the
lock-in reference needs to be phase-locked to the signal reference.

Lock-in amplifiers use a phase-locked loop (PLL) to generate the reference signal. An external
reference signal (in this case, the reference square wave) is provided to the lockin. The PLL in
the lock-in “locks” the internal reference oscillator to this external reference, resulting in a
reference sine wave at ωr with a fixed phase shift of θref. Since the PLL actively tracks the
external reference, changes in the external reference frequency do not affect the
measurement.

All Lock-In Measurements Require a Reference Signal

In this case, the reference is provided by the excitation source (the function generator). This is
called an external reference source. In many situations, the lock-in’s internal oscillator may be
used instead. The internal oscillator is just like a function generator (with variable sine output
and a TTL sync) which is always phase-locked to the reference oscillator.

Magnitude and Phase

Remember that the PSD output is proportional to Vsig cosθ where θ = (θsig − θref). θ is the phase
difference between the signal and the lock-in reference oscillator. By adjusting θref we can make
θ equal to zero, in which case we can measure Vsig (cosθ = 1). Conversely, if θ is 90°, there will
be no output at all. A lock-in with a single PSD is called a single phase lock-in and its output is
Vsig cosθ. This phase dependency can be eliminated by adding a second PSD. If the second PSD
multiplies the signal with the reference oscillator shifted by 90°, i.e. sin(ωLt + θref + 90°), its

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low pass filtered output will be

Vpsd2 = 1/2 Vsig sin(θsig − θref)

Vpsd2 ~ Vsig sinθ

Now we have two outputs, one proportional to cosθ and the other proportional to sinθ. If we
call the first output X and the second Y,

X = Vsig cosθ

Y = Vsig sinθ

these two quantities represent the signal as a vector relative to the lock-in reference oscillator.
X is called the 'in-phase' component and Y the 'quadrature' component. This is because when
θ = 0, X measures the signal while Y is zero.

By computing the magnitude (R) of the signal vector, the phase dependency is removed.

R = (X2 + Y2)1/2 = Vsig

R measures the signal amplitude and does not depend upon the phase between the signal and
lock-in reference.

A dual-phase lock-in has two PSD's, with reference oscillators 90° apart, and can measure X, Y
and R directly. In addition, the phase θ between the signal and lock-in reference, can be
measured according to

θ = tan−1 (Y/X)

What Does a Lock-In Amplifier Measure?

So what exactly does a lock-in amplifier measure? Fourier's theorem basically states that any
input signal can be represented as the sum of many sine waves of differing amplitudes,
frequencies and phases. This is generally considered as representing the signal in the
“frequency domain”. Normal oscilloscopes display the signal in the “time domain”. Except in
the case of clean sine waves, the time domain representation does not convey very much
information about the various frequencies that make up the signal.

What Do SRS Lock-ins Measure?

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Most SRS lock-in amplifiers (SR830, SR860, SR865A, etc.) use sine wave mixing, where the input
signal is multiplied by a pure sine wave at the reference frequency. All components of the input
signal (the signal of interest, noise, harmonics, etc.) are multiplied by the reference
simultaneously. Mathematically speaking, sine waves of differing frequencies are orthogonal,
i.e. the average of the product of two sine waves is zero unless the frequencies are exactly the
same. In most SRS lock-ins, the product of this multiplication yields a dc output signal
proportional to the component of the signal whose frequency is exactly locked to the reference
frequency. The low pass filter which follows the multiplier provides the averaging which
removes the products of the reference with components at all other frequencies.

Because most SRS lock-in amplifiers multiply the input signal with a pure sine wave, they
measure the single Fourier (sine) component of the signal at the reference frequency. Let's take
a look at an example. Suppose the input signal is a simple square wave at frequency f. The
square wave is actually composed of many sine waves at multiples of f with carefully related
amplitudes and phases. A 2V pk–pk square wave can be expressed as

S(t) = 1.273 sin(ωt) + 0.4244 sin(3ωt) + 0.2546 sin(5ωt) + …

where ω = 2πf. The lock-in, locked to f, will single out the first component. The measured signal
will be 1.273 sin(ωt), not the 2V pk–pk that you'd measure on a scope.

In the general case, the input consists of signal plus noise. Noise is represented as varying
signals at all frequencies. The ideal lock-in only responds to noise at the reference frequency.
Noise at other frequencies is removed by the low pass filter following the multiplier. This
“bandwidth narrowing” is the primary advantage that a lock-in amplifier provides. Only inputs
at the reference frequency result in an output.

RMS or Peak?
Lock-in amplifiers as a general rule display the input signal in Volts RMS. When SRS lock-in
amplifiers display a magnitude of 1V (rms), the component of the input signal at the reference
frequency is a sine wave with an amplitude of 1 Vrms or 2.8 V pk–pk.

Thus, in the previous example with a 2 V pk–pk square wave input, SRS lock-ins would detect
the first sine component, 1.273 sin(ωt). The measured and displayed magnitude would be 0.90
V (rms), e.g. 1.273/√2.

Degrees or Radians?
In this discussion, frequencies have been referred to as f (Hz) and ω (2πf radians/sec). This is
because people measure frequencies in cycles per second and math works best in radians. For
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purposes of measurement, frequencies as measured in a lock-in amplifier are in Hz. The
equations used to explain the actual calculations are sometimes written using ω to simplify the
expressions.

Phase is always reported in degrees. Once again, this is by custom. Equations written as sin(ωt +
θ) are written as if θ is in radians mostly for simplicity. Lock-in amplifiers always manipulate and
measure phase in degrees.

Block Diagram
A simplified block diagram of a lock-in amplifier is shown below.

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