If the magnitude, B, of the reference frequency is kept constant,
then the output from the phase-sensitive detector is a DC signal
which is:-
w proportional to the magnitude of the input signal A
w proportional to the cosine of the angle, q, between it and
the reference signal
w modulated at 2wt, i.e. it contains components at twice the
reference frequency.
The output from the PSD then passes to a low-pass filter which
removes the 2wt component, leaving the output of the lock-in
amplifier as the required DC signal.
In a practical situation the signal will usually be accompanied
by noise, but it can be shown that as long as there is no
consistent phase (and therefore by implication frequency)
relationship between the noise and the signal, the output of the
multiplier due to the noise voltages will not be steady and can
therefore be removed by the output filter.