We have developed a line-based computer control system that is embedded within the commercially available program LabVIEW. The program translates a sequence of C++ commands into an array of values for the programming of hardware devices, including digital and analog I/O boards and a GPIB controller. These commands are executed with 1 μs resolution upon receipt of an external triggering signal. We have successfully applied this system to the generation of Bose–Einstein condensates in a dilute gas of Rb87.
We have developed a line-based computer control system that is embedded within the commercially available program LabVIEW. The program translates a sequence of C++ commands into an array of values for the programming of hardware devices, including digital and analog I/O boards and a GPIB controller. These commands are executed with 1 μs resolution upon receipt of an external triggering signal. We have successfully applied this system to the generation of Bose–Einstein condensates in a dilute gas of Rb87.
Experimental quantum physics and computing platforms rely on sophisticated computer control and timing systems that must be deterministic. An exemplar is the sequence used to create a Bose-Einstein condensate at the University of Illinois, which involves 46,812 analog and digital transitions over 100 seconds with 20 ns timing precision and nanosecond timing drift. We present a control and sequencing platform, using industry-standard National Instruments hardware to generate the necessary digital and analog signals, that achieves this level of performance. The system uses a master 10 MHz reference clock that is conditioned to the Global Positioning Satellite constellation and leverages low-phase-noise clock distribution hardware for timing stability. A Python-based user front-end provides a flexible language to describe experimental procedures and easy-to-implement version control. A library of useful peripheral hardware that can be purchased as low-cost evaluation boards provides enhanced capabilities. We provide a GitHub repository containing example python sequences and libraries for peripheral devices as a resource for the community.
Modern experiments with fundamental quantum systems - like ultracold atoms, trapped ions, and single photons - are managed by a control system formed by a number of input/output electronic channels governed by a computer. In hybrid quantum systems, where two or more quantum systems are combined and made to interact, establishing an efficient control system is particularly challenging due to the higher complexity, especially when each single quantum system is characterized by a different time scale. Here we present a new control apparatus specifically designed to efficiently manage hybrid quantum systems. The apparatus is formed by a network of fast communicating Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), the action of which is administrated by a software. Both hardware and software share the same tree-like structure, which ensures a full scalability of the control apparatus. In the hardware, a master board acts on a number of slave boards, each of which is equipped with an FPGA that locally drives analog and digital input/output channels and radiofrequency outputs up to 400 MHz. The software is designed to be a general platform for managing both commercial and home-made instruments in a user-friendly and intuitive graphical user interface. The architecture ensures that complex control protocols can be carried out, such as performing of concurrent commands loops by acting on different channels, the generation of multi-variable error functions, and the implementation of self-optimization procedures. Although designed for managing experiments with hybrid quantum systems, in particular with atom-ion mixtures, this control apparatus can in principle be used in any experiment in atomic, molecular, and optical physics.
This work presents a pulse-level programming interface for superconducting processor control using QProgram, a hardware-agnostic framework for digital and analog quantum systems. The approach combines programmable pulse sequences with a structured description of the laboratory setup, integrating instrument configuration, calibrated device information, pulse optimization, compilation, and execution. The methodology supports waveform generation, measurement, parameter sweeps, and synchronization, illustrated through a qubit coherence experiment. Digital predistortion compensates for signal distortions along the control lines, while linear crosstalk compensation enables control in physical flux coordinates. An experimental example demonstrates crosstalk correction between the two flux loops of a tunable fluxonium qubit. The contribution also highlights how this architecture supports a reusable library of characterization experiments and forms the foundation of SeQtante, an automated tool for calibrating and benchmarking digital and analog quantum systems.
Advanced physics experiments require computer control systems to coordinate the apparatus on time scales from hours to nanoseconds. In this thesis I present a new software system, the labscript suite, for controlling modern ultracold atom experiments. Labscript prepares experiments from Python code and a list of parameters, generating instructions for heterogeneous hardware: pulse sequencers, analog input/output, and radio-frequency synthesis devices, which in turn execute the experiment in strict real time. Other software components automate scheduling of long-running experimental sequences, and the analysis of results. The labscript suite rapidly creates sophisticated experiments, flexibly analyses results, and archives the data.
We have developed an electronic hardware system for the control and readout of multi-superconducting qubit devices. The hardware system is based on the design ideas of good scalability, high synchronization and low latency. The system, housed inside a VPX-6U chassis, includes multiple arbitrary-waveform generator (AWG) channels, analog-digital-converter (ADC) channels as well as direct current source channels. The system can be used for the control and readout of up to twelve superconducting transmon qubits in one chassis, and control and readout of more and more qubit can be carried out by interconnecting the chassis. By using field programmable gate array (FPGA) processors, the system incorporates three features that are specifically useful for superconducting qubit research. Firstly, qubit signals can be processed using the on-board FPGA after being acquired by ADCs, significantly reducing data processing time and data amount for storage and transmission. Secondly, different output modes, such as direct output and sequential output modes, of AWG can be implemented with pre-encoded FPGA. Thirdly, with data acquisition ADCs and controlAWGs jointly controlled by the same FPGA, the feedback latency can be reduced, and in ourtest a 178.4 ns latency time is realized. This is very useful for future quantum feedback experiments. Finally, we demonstrate the functionality of the system by applying the system to the control and readout of a 10 qubit superconducting quantum processor.
In this paper, we present description and characteristics of a compact control system for the transportable optical lattice clocks. The hardware of this system is based on the STM32 microcontroller and the software with a graphical interface implemented by the Python software language. The control system has more than twenty digital outputs, ten analog outputs and the ability to connect the additional modules. This system provides the generation of the digital signals with a time resolution of 10 μs with a high synchronization accuracy when the digital-to-analog converter operates simultaneously with digital signals. We compared our custom the microcontroller-based system with the commercial Real-Time National Instruments system, which is often used in experiments with ultracold atoms. Experiments have shown that using both systems allows to cool 87Sr atoms to a temperature of ∼14 μK. This is enough to load the atoms into an optical lattice and to perform the clock transition spectroscopy.