Copyright (c) 2016-2018 Danny Petschke ([email protected]). All rights reserved.

DLTPulseGenerator - A library for the simulation of lifetime spectra based on detector-output pulses

The quantitative analysis of lifetime spectra relevant in both life and materials sciences presents one of the ill-posed inverse problems and leads to the most stringent requirements on the hardware specifications and analysis algorithms.

DLTPulseGenerator is written in native C 11 (ISO/IEC 14882:2011) and provides the simulation of lifetime spectra according to the measurement setup: i.e. the kind of detectors (PMTs - Photomultiplier, Diodes, such as APDs - Avalanche Photodiodes) and the acquisition hardware (mostly the combination of ADC and FPGA). The simulation is based on pairs of non-TTL detector pulses which require the Constant Fraction Principle (CFD) for the determination of the exact timing signal.

DLTPulseGenerator library provides the optional compilation as static or linked library to make it easy accessible from other programming languages, e.g.

• Matlab (for mex-library) or
  
• Python (for ctypes-library).

Petschke D., Staab T.E.M. DLTPulseGenerator: A library for the simulation of lifetime spectra based on detector-output pulses. SoftwareX (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.softx.2018.04.002.

This release v1.0 refers to the original paper (Petschke and Staab (2018)) and provides the simulation of lifetime spectra consisting of discrete specific lifetimes.

forked by SoftwareX (Elsevier): https://github.com/ElsevierSoftwareX/SOFTX-D-17-00077

This release v1.1 was extended to provide the simulation of lifetime spectra consisting of distributed specific lifetimes as can be found in porous materials (polymers, glasses) using positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS).

This release v1.2 was modified to allow the simulation of lifetime spectra consisting of non-Gaussian distributed and linearly combined Instrument Response Functions for the PDS A/B and MU.

int main() {
  printf("How to easily implement DLTPulseGenerator library?\n\n");

  /* 1a. Define structs: */
  DLTSetup setup                     = DLTSetup_DEMO; 
  DLTPulse pulse                     = DLTPulse_DEMO; 
  DLTPHS phs                         = DLTPHS_DEMO; 
  DLTSimulationInput simulationInput = DLTSimulationInput_DEMO; 
  
  /* 1b. Set trigger-levels for branch A and B: */
  const double triggerA_in_mV = 50.0;
  const double triggerB_in_mV = 50.0;
  
  /* 2. Initialize DLTPulseGenerator class: */
  DLTPulseGenerator *pulseGenerator = new DLTPulseGenerator(simulationInput, phs, setup, pulse, nullptr);
  
  /* 3. Receive pulses: */
  DLTPulseF pulseA, pulseB;
  
  while (1) {
    if ( pulseGenerator->emitPulses(&pulseA, &pulseB, triggerA_in_mV, triggerB_in_mV) ) {
      /* all algorithms for exact timing determination and lifetime calculation, respectively, have to be placed here! */
      /* const double timingA = CFD(pulseA, level);
	 const double timingB = CFD(pulseB, level);

	 const double lifetime = calcDifference(timingA, timingB);

	 -> binning the lifetimes (MCA). */
    }
    else
      break;
  }
}

Errors can be handled by inheriting from class DLTPulseGenerator and using the provided callback function: see DLTPulseGeneratorApp.h/.cpp.

A library wrapper in Python (pyDLTPulseGenerator.py) which demonstrates the usage of ctypes-library by calling the functions from DLTPulseGenerator.dll (x86/x64) is provided.
pyDLTPulseGeneratorApp.py calls functions from the library wrapper pyDLTPulseGenerator.py and displayes the generated pulse pairs. Additionally, the Pulse Height Spectra (PHS) are determined and displayed.

• ctypes
• NumPy
• matplotlib
  

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification,
are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice
   this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
   
   

2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice,
   this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation
   and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
   
   

3. Neither the name of the copyright holder "Danny Petschke" nor the names of
   its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from
   this software without specific prior written permission.
   
   

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