A distributed, graphical user interface based, computer control system for atomic physics experiments
Abstract
Atomic physics experiments often require a complex sequence of precisely timed computer controlled events. This paper describes a distributed graphical user interface-based control system designed with such experiments in mind, which makes use of off-the-shelf output hardware from National Instruments. The software makes use of a client-server separation between a user interface for sequence design and a set of output hardware servers. Output hardware servers are designed to use standard National Instruments output cards, but the client-server nature should allow this to be extended to other output hardware. Output sequences running on multiple servers and output cards can be synchronized using a shared clock. By using a field programmable gate array-generated variable frequency clock, redundant buffers can be dramatically shortened, and a time resolution of 100 ns achieved over effectively arbitrary sequence lengths.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2013
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4773536
Entities
People
- Aviv Keshet
- Wolfgang Ketterle
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology