MultiHarp 160

Time-Tagged Time-Resolved (TTTR) acquisition records every detected photon as an individual time-tagged event, preserving the complete temporal structure of the experiment. In quantum optics and detector characterization, TTTR is the native data model for coincidence analysis, photon statistics, and time-interval measurements across many channels.

MultiHarp 160 supports TTTR operation in both T2 and T3 modes, enabling flexible timing analysis depending on the experimental requirements. High sustained count rates, compact data formats, and hardware-level filtering help keep even long measurements manageable. Beyond quantum applications, TTTR also enables advanced analyses such as FCS, fluorescence dynamics, and burst detection. A dedicated blog article provides a deeper introduction to TTTR, its modes, and application range.

MultiHarp 160 features native White Rabbit support with fully integrated nodes for deterministic, Ethernet-based timing networks. This hardware-level integration enables sub-nanosecond accuracy and stable synchronization over large distances. By embedding the timing infrastructure directly inside the instrument, MultiHarp 160 enables highly reliable, long-distance synchronization without sacrificing input channels and is ideally suited for advanced distributed experiments and modern timing architectures. 

As quantum experiments scale in channel count and photon rate, data throughput quickly becomes the dominant limitation. While individual detector channels can operate at very high rates, conventional interfaces constrain how much information can be transferred to a computer in real time. MultiHarp 160 addresses this challenge through onboard processing, flexible data reduction, and a dedicated external FPGA interface. By enabling low-latency access to time tags and custom real-time processing beyond USB bandwidth limits, it allows researchers to adapt data handling precisely to their experimental requirements.

Quantum experiments rarely stay confined to a single box: Detectors multiply, setups stretch across optical tables, and sometimes even across buildings or kilometers of fiber. As complexity grows, timing electronics becomes the first thing to slip: channels saturate, data floods, clocks drift. The MultiHarp 160 is designed for this reality. It scales with your experiment, maintains picosecond timing at high rates, and uses White Rabbit to keep multiple devices synchronized with picosecond precision and sub-nanosecond accuracy over long distances. When your research surpasses conventional electronics, the MultiHarp 160 keeps everything aligned.

UniHarp is PicoQuant’s integrated data acquisition software for MultiHarp systems, designed to give researchers a fast and intuitive start into time-resolved measurements. It offers real-time control of all key timing parameters, clear visual feedback through live histograms and time traces, and seamless access to correlation tools such as g² and FCS. With a clean interface, structured parameter settings, and flexible data export, UniHarp supports both quick exploratory measurements and routine workflows. In combination with its built-in manipulators, UniHarp can also process photon time tags in real time, enabling coincidence filtering, heralded detection, and other experiment-specific data transformations directly during acquisition. It provides a consistent, modern environment for operating MultiHarp devices without additional setup effort.

For automated measurements and custom data pipelines, snAPI provides direct Python access to all MultiHarp configuration and acquisition functions. Its lightweight interface integrates smoothly into scientific codebases, enabling scripted scans, real-time processing, and experiment-specific timing logic. In combination with snAPI’s measurement classes and manipulators, photon data streams can be filtered, conditioned, and transformed in real time to implement coincidence logic, heralding schemes, or other experiment-specific workflows. Whether you need rapid prototyping or fully automated routines, snAPI offers the flexibility to adapt your workflow without overhead.