Performance of a sound card as data acquisition system and a lock-in emulated by software in capillary electrophoresis.

The performance of fluorescence detectors in capillary electrophoresis is maximized when the excitation light intensity is modulated in time with optimal frequencies. This is especially true when photomultiplier tubes are used to detect the fluorescent light. The photomultiplier tube amplified raw output signal can in principle be captured directly by a personal computer sound card (PCSC) and processed by a lock-in emulated by software.