Introduction

GoldExI was written to make your scientific experiments fast and easy and provide you with convenient way of data acquisition, storing and analysis. Since I am working in the field of superconducting electronics and in particular Josephson junctions, GoldExI is written mainly for this kind of applications. If you are working in other field and find GoldExI useful, please let me know.

The first version of the program was written by my scientific supervisor Dr. V.Kaplunenko when I was his diploma student in 1991. M$ Windows 2.0 had just appeared and majority of people were working under M$ DOS. The decision to write data acquisition program under M$ Windows was very wise in spite M$ Windows was not considered as an operating system but rather as a graphical user interface for DOS. M$ Window was working in 640KB of DOS's RAM in real mode (386 and above didn't exist yet) and it was enough. At that time the program was called ExI.

Now I have already Ph.D. degree in physics but the development of ExI is still in progress. During all these years the program was completely rewritten by me and renamed to GoldExI since Dr. V.Kaplunenko develops (?) his own clone of ExI. In addition to many new features, I tried to make GoldExI more robust and portable. In 1997 GoldExI successfully migrated from M$ Windows 3.x to Windows 95/NT. I hope that it will survive in the future too. The only thing I need is your feedback. Today GoldExI executable is still quite small - about 400KB, and the source code contains about 25,000 lines (about 800KB).

Main features

• You can measure:

  • Current Voltage Characteristics (IVC)
    
  • IVC families as a function of one parameter (IVF)
    
  • Dependence of critical current on applied magnetic field (I_c(H))
    
  • Dependence of maximal current of the step/resonance on applied magnetic field (I_max(H))
    
  • Response of the system on applied waveform (V[I(t)])
    
  • Dependence of critical current on temperature. semiautomatic. (I_c(T))
    
  • Dependence of voltage at some bias point on temperature (V(T))

• Auto-detection of installed hardware.
  

• Flexible configuration of DAC/ADC channels, gain control
  
• Build-in sweep and programmable waveform generator
  
• Delay & timing control
  
• Averaging during measurements, flexible averaging options
  
• All Measurement functions are optimized for high speed
  
• Files can be saved and loaded back for review and analysis as plain ASCII dat-file.
  
• High quality printing with options.
  
• Math processing of curves: shifting, scaling, derivative, smoothing, etc.
  
• Popup Tools: Thermometer, Cursors, Picture Information
  
• Saving/Loading configurations.

System requirements

• PC with M$ Windows 9x/Me/NT/2000 OS.
  

• For full version: Almost any 12 or 16-bit National Instruments ADC/DAC card. You should have at least one DAC channel and one ADC channel in your system. SCXI devices are supported but not extensively tested.
  
• For full version: NI-DAQ software v5.0 or above. It can be downloaded for free and it is also included with National Instuments DAC/ADC/SCXI cards when you buy them.

Does anybody use it?

Yes! GoldExI is installed and works in several research laboratories in Europe:

1. Inst. of Radio Engineering and Electronics (IREE), Moscow, Russia
   

2. Chalmers University of Technology, Physics Department, Gothenburg, Sweden
   
3. German National Institute of Standards (PTB), Laboratory of Electrical noise, Braunschweig, Germany
   
4. Research Center Juelich GmbH (FZJ), Institute of Thin Film and Ion Technology (ISI), Juelich, Germany
   
5. Physics Department, University of Erlangen-Nuernberg, Erlangen, Germany
   
6. "KVARZ", Nizhnii Novgorod, Russia. (using Melhaus Electronics cards via EMDAQ)
   
7. Oxxel GmbH, Bremen, Germany
   
8. Univ. of Tuebingen, Inst. of Experimental Phisics II & Inst of Theoretical Physics, Tuebingen, Germany.

If you are making research in the field of Josephson junctions I strongly recommend you to try this software.

GoldExI vs. LabView

Many people believe that it is better to buy a well known LabView system from National Instruments. LabView is a general purpose system which allows to develope a data acquisition system for particular needs. Thus, with LabView you have to write the particular type of measurement procedure by yourself. LabView provides good interface and graphic language which simplifies the programing. LabView knows a lot of devices and potentially more powerful. Instead, GoldExI is ready solution. You don't have to write any single line of code or draw fancy diagrams - just install and use it. It implements basic measurement procedures for superconducting and Josephson circuits. It is much faster than any LabView application you will ever write.

Finally, you can have both. They both work with the same hardware.

How much does it cost?

That is the most difficult question. In each particular case it is a matter of agreement. It depends on who you are: academic or commrcial organization, where you are situated etc. I am very flexible in this, so contact me and we will negotiate.

More Info?

1. Try to download and run demo version of GoldExI. The Josephson junction simulation routine is built into demo. It provides IVC with hysteresis, noise, and dependence on magnetic field. Full set of features except DAC/ADC card access.
   

2. Visit gallery to see what other people do with it.
   
3. Contact author by email.

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