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Summary of Contents for PicoQuant Prima
- Page 1 Prima 3-Color Picosecond Laser Pulsed, CW and fast switched laser with variable operating wavelength User Manual Document version 1.2.0...
- Page 3 5.1. Powering the system ON........................ 16 5.2. Setting Operating Parameters with PQLaserDrv Graphical User Interface........16 5.2.1. Select Device........................17 5.2.2. Apply / Discard........................18 5.2.3. Soft Lock and Unlock of the Prima..................18 5.2.4. Multi Color Laser Control Panel..................19 5.2.5. Presets..........................22 5.2.6. “About...” button......................... 23 6.
- Page 4 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual 9.2. Trademarks............................ 31 10. Further Reading............................. 32 10.1. PicoQuant Bibliography........................ 32 10.2. Download of Technical Notes / Application Notes................32 11. Appendix..............................33 11.1. Abbreviations..........................33 11.2. System Delivery Report........................ 33 Page 2...
- Page 5 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual 1. General safety information Before using this device, make sure that you have read and understood the content of this user manual. Store this documentation in a safe and easily accessible place for future reference. Incorrect handling of this product may result in personal injury or physical damage. The...
- Page 6 The Prima can be equipped with laser diodes that can emit visible, infrared, or UV light. Infrared or UV light is not visible to the eye! The Prima laser module can emit laser light of up to class 3b / IIIb. Please refer to the labels affixed to the laser for information on classification.
- Page 7 (highlighted by red boxes in Fig. 1). The label states the laser product classifica- tion, certification, power, and wavelength range relevant for the classification. Fig. 1: Laser warning label, laser aperture indicator label and manual shutter as well as their location on the Prima laser module housing.
- Page 8 1.5. Remote Interlock Connector A hardware lock as well as a remote interlock connector are part of the Prima 3-Color Picosecond laser. Removing the green interlock connector (LEMO plug) or breaking the interlock circuit will immediately deacti- vate the power supply of the laser.
- Page 9 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual Pin assignment for the interlock The interlock is a 4 pin LEMO EGG.00.304.CLL female connector as shown in Fig. 3. In order to activate laser emission, pins 2 and 3 need to be bridged using a suitable adapter. Do NOT apply any voltage.
- Page 10 Prima is the perfect tool: Capable of covering most of your needs when it comes to daily lab tasks, such as lifetime or quantum yield measurements, photoluminescence, and fluorescence.
- Page 11 CW mode. If the Prima is operated at either very low repetition rates, long gating periods, or with an invalid trigger level, the indicator will turn off after about 100 ms until the next event switches the LED back on.
- Page 12 The gating function affects the triggering mechanism. The gating input accepts TTL pulses and is effective if the Prima is being triggered either from the internal oscillator or from an external source. The gating function can perform transition between on and off states within nanoseconds. Presuming a precise timing, it can switch between two laser pulses, even at high repetition rates.
- Page 13 Product Label The product label (see Fig. 6) can be found on the side of the Prima module, next to the laser safety label. It shows all relevant information needed to identify the device, including product name, part number, serial number, manufacturing date as well as the PicoQuant logo with address, CE label, and waste regulation identifier.
- Page 14 For best laser performance and stability, please ensure free air circulation around the whole laser module. By default, the cooling fans will be running when the Prima is powered on and the fans cannot be switch off during operation.
- Page 15 4.1. Unpacking and Preparations Your Prima is delivered with a series of cables and accessories. Start by unpacking the delivery box and check that all components listed in the table below are present. The manual and operation software can be downloaded from our website: www.picoquant.com/downloads.
- Page 16 4.3. Software Installation Once the Prima is in its dedicated place and the relevant cables have been inserted, connect the Prima to the host computer using the delivered USB-C cable. The Prima should not be powered on before the control software is installed on the host computer! The control software “PQLaserDrv.exe”...
- Page 17 11. Click Finish to close the Installation Wizard Once the software is installed, the Prima can be switched on (see chapter 5). When the laser is powered on for the first time, Windows will detect a new device and installs the necessary device drivers.
- Page 18 Prima Manual 5. Operation This section describes in detail step by step how to switch on the Prima and how to use the GUI to set the various laser module settings (e.g. power intensity, trigger source, repetition rate, fan control).
- Page 19 Select Device The Select Device function is useful if more than one Prima (or any other USB laser device from Pico- Quant) is connected to the same host computer. It can also be used to restore the USB connection to the device if it is interrupted for any reason during operation.
- Page 20 5.2.3. Soft Lock and Unlock of the Prima The Prima can be locked (no laser light emission) not only with the hardware key switch on the interface panel, but also via the GUI by clicking on the button labeled Laser Soft Lock / Laser Soft Unlock in the Main Controller panel on the left side of the software window.
- Page 21 / power up. Before unlocking the laser, please refer to chapter 1.3 for laser safety instructions. Fig. 10: Prima locking status indicator in the GUI: laser unlocked (left), laser hard locked via key switch (middle), laser soft locked (right) 5.2.4.
- Page 22 • Broad pulse: In this operation mode, the Prima will generate picosecond laser pulses in a similar way as in the Narrow pulse mode. The main difference being that pulses will have a higher optical output power but with a broader pulse width (typ. < 1 ns, depending on wave- length).
- Page 23 Trig. Level, where the threshold of the trigger signal can be set in V (see Fig. 13). 1 ns...4 ns Pulse: In one of these operation modes, the Prima will generate ns laser pulses in •...
- Page 24 Intensity: • The intensity of the Prima’s driving current can be set on a freely adjustable scale from 0 to 100 %, with a step width of 0.1%. The optical output power does not correlate linearly with the current intensity scale.
- Page 25 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual A pop up window gives the possibility to include a short comment with a maximal length of 64 characters for each stored configuration (see Fig. 15). A stored configuration can simply be recalled by clicking on the button labeled Recall Preset 1 or Recall Preset 2.
- Page 26 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual Fig. 17: A potential result screen after searching for latest manual versions Lines corresponding to manuals that are up-to-date will be greyed out. Manuals that are currently not installed are listed as v0.0.0 in the column Cur. Vers.
- Page 27 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual 6. Troubleshooting, Tips and Tricks 6.1. Power stability Please allow a start-up and warm-up time of about one minute between powering up the laser module and activating it through the laser key switch. This thermal equilibration time will ensure the ideal stability of the optical output power.
- Page 28 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual 7. Technical Data / Specifications Optical output Available wavelengths ......375 - 1600 nm Nominal max. pulsed power ....up to 10 mW Nominal cw power....... up to 50 mW CW Optical rise / fall time....< 3 ns Average Beam dimension ....
- Page 29 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual Interface PC interface......... USB 2.0 Connector..........USB-C Operating system........ Windows 10 and 11 Retraction of Old Devices Waste electrical products must not be disposed of with household waste. This equipment should be taken to your local recycling center for safe treatment.
- Page 30 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual Dimensions of the Prima laser modules (all values given in mm): Part No. 912001 Back Front Side Page 28...
- Page 31 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual Part No. 912002 Back Front Side Page 29...
- Page 32 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual 8. Support 8.1. Returning Products for Repair Should you encounter problems that require sending the device in for inspection / repair, please contact us first at: https://support.picoquant.com support@picoquant.com and request an RMA number before ship- ping the device. Please include the serial number of your device. Observe precautions against static dis- charge under all circumstances during handling, packaging and shipping.
- Page 33 Prima Manual 9. Legal Terms 9.1. Copyright Copyright of this manual and on-line documentation belongs to PicoQuant GmbH. No parts of it may be reproduced, translated, or transferred to third parties without written permission of PicoQuant 9.2. Trademarks Other products and corporate names appearing in this manual may or may not be registered trademarks or subject to copyrights of their respective owners.
- Page 34 10.1. PicoQuant Bibliography PicoQuant maintains a database of publications mentioning PicoQuant devices. It can be found at our web- site https://www.picoquant.com/scientific/references. It is a valuable source if you would like to know which laboratories are using PicoQuant products or how broad the field of various applications is.
- Page 35 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual 11. Appendix 11.1. Abbreviations British Naval Connector or Bayonet Nut Connector or Bayonet Neill Concelman CAMAC Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee FWHM Full Width at Half Maximum International Electrotechnical Commission Infra-red Instrument Response Function Light Emitting Diode...
- Page 36 PicoQuant GmbH Prima Manual This page was intentionally left blank All information given here is reliable to our best knowledge. However, no responsibility is assumed for possible inaccuracies or omissions. Specifications and external appearances are subject to change without notice.
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