A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments

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 Instrumen...

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Main Authors: Keshet, Aviv, Ketterle, Wolfgang
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Institute of Physics (AIP) 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88508
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9528-3044
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author Keshet, Aviv
Ketterle, Wolfgang
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Keshet, Aviv
Ketterle, Wolfgang
author_sort Keshet, Aviv
collection MIT
description 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.
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spelling mit-1721.1/885082022-09-30T14:28:43Z A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments A distributed, graphical user interface based, computer control system for atomic physics experiments Keshet, Aviv Ketterle, Wolfgang Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Research Laboratory of Electronics MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms Keshet, Aviv Ketterle, Wolfgang 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. National Science Foundation (U.S.) United States. Office of Naval Research United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research. Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative United States. Army Research Office (Grant W911NF-07-1-0493) United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Optical Lattice Emulator Program 2014-07-28T19:59:38Z 2014-07-28T19:59:38Z 2013-01 2012-08 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 00346748 1089-7623 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88508 Keshet, Aviv, and Wolfgang Ketterle. “A Distributed, Graphical User Interface Based, Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments.” Review of Scientific Instruments 84, no. 1 (2013): 015105. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9528-3044 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4773536 Review of Scientific Instruments Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf American Institute of Physics (AIP) arXiv
spellingShingle Keshet, Aviv
Ketterle, Wolfgang
A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments
title A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments
title_full A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments
title_fullStr A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments
title_full_unstemmed A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments
title_short A Distributed GUI-based Computer Control System for Atomic Physics Experiments
title_sort distributed gui based computer control system for atomic physics experiments
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88508
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9528-3044
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