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Review of Scientific Instruments

Note: A versatile radio-frequency source for cold atom experiments

Na Li, Yu-Ping Wu, Hao Min, Tao Yang, Xiao Qiang Jiang

Published Aug 1, 2016• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A radio-frequency (RF) source designed for cold atom experiments is presented. The source uses AD9858, a direct digital synthesizer, to generate the sine wave directly, up to 400 MHz, with sub-Hz resolution. An amplitude control circuit consisting of wideband variable gain amplifier and high speed digital to analog converter is integrated into the source, capable of 70 dB off isolation and 4 ns on-off keying. A field programmable gate array is used to implement a versatile frequency and amplitude co-sweep logic. Owing to modular design, the RF sources have been used on many cold atom experiments to generate various complicated RF sequences, enriching the operation schemes of cold atoms, which cannot be done by standard RF source instruments.

DOI
10.1063/1.4961640

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A radio-frequency (RF) source designed for cold atom experiments is presented. The source uses AD9858, a direct digital synthesizer, to generate the sine wave directly, up to 400 MHz, with sub-Hz resolution. An amplitude control circuit consisting of wideband variable gain amplifier and high speed digital to analog converter is integrated into the source, capable of 70 dB off isolation and 4 ns on-off keying. A field programmable gate array is used to implement a versatile frequency and amplitude co-sweep logic. Owing to modular design, the RF sources have been used on many cold atom experiments to generate various complicated RF sequences, enriching the operation schemes of cold atoms, which cannot be done by standard RF source instruments.
We present a radio frequency source based on the AD9914 direct digital synthesizer chip, with a frequency range up to 1.4 GHz. The phase noise at an output frequency of 1 GHz is lower than −110 dBc/Hz at a 10 kHz offset. Through an optimized design of a field-programmable gate array, we have achieved the theoretical maximum modulation rate of AD9914 and developed multiple functional modules for cold atom experiments to implement modulation of frequency, phase, and amplitude. The modulation update rate reaches 146 MHz. The phase modulation response latency is 158 ns, and the amplitude modulation response latency is 95.1 ns. We have applied the RF source to a sideband Pound–Drever–Hall locking experiment and achieved frequency stabilization, demonstrating its suitability for cold atom experiments that require precise and complex laser control.
We present a compact field-programmable gate array (FPGA) based pulse sequencer and radio-frequency (RF) generator suitable for experiments with cold trapped ions and atoms. The unit is capable of outputting a pulse sequence with at least 32 transistor-transistor logic (TTL) channels with a timing resolution of 40 ns and contains a built-in 100 MHz frequency counter for counting electrical pulses from a photo-multiplier tube. There are 16 independent direct-digital-synthesizers RF sources with fast (rise-time of ∼60 ns) amplitude switching and sub-mHz frequency tuning from 0 to 800 MHz.
A compact and fast radio-frequency (RF) source developed for Raman sideband cooling (RSBC) in trapped ion and cold atom experiments is presented. The source is based on direct digital synthesizer, advanced real-time infrastructure for quantum physics, and field programmable gate array. The source has a frequency switching speed of 40 ns and can output continuous μs-level time sequences for RSBC. The maximum output frequency of the source is 1.4 GHz. The RF source is capable of pre-writing data for eight channels. As a demonstration, the RF source is applied to our 25Mg+-27Al+ ion pair optical clock experiment. In order to cool down the ion pair to the vibrational ground state, two-order RSBC is applied to the 25Mg+ ion. As a result, the ion pair motions in the three X, Y, and Z directions are all cooled to the vibrational ground state efficiently, demonstrating the feasibility of this technique. The developed RF source can be widely implemented for other cold atom experiments.
This thesis describes the design, construction, and testing of a radio frequency signal source for generating rapidly changing frequencies in a repeatable and phase continuous manner. The radio frequency (RF) signal is generated by a Direct Digital Synthesizer (DDS) which is controlled by a triggerable microprocessor unit which is itself remotely programmed through an Ethernet connection. Waveforms generated by the RF source can be used for direct RF evaporation or RF manipulation of magnetic trapping potentials for ultra-cold atoms on an atom chip. The ultimate objective of the project is to mix the RF signal with higher frequency carrier waves to generate microwaves for the manipulation of hyperfine states of ultra-cold atoms of potassium and rubidium.
Cold-atom interferometers have matured into a powerful tool for fundamental physics research, and they are currently moving from realizations in the laboratory to applications in the field. A radio frequency (RF) generator is an indispensable component of these devices for controlling lasers and manipulating atoms. In this work, we developed a compact RF generator for fast switching and sweeping the frequencies and amplitudes of atomic-interference pulse sequences. In this generator, multi-channel RF signals are generated using a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) to control eight direct digital synthesizers (DDSs). We further propose and demonstrate a method for pre-loading the parameters of all the RF pulse sequences to the DDS registers before their execution, which eliminates the need for data transfer between the FPGA and DDSs to change RF signals. This sharply decreases the frequency-switching time when the pulse sequences are running. Performance characterization showed that the generated RF signals achieve a 100 ns frequency-switching time and a 40 dB harmonic-rejection ratio. The generated RF pulse sequences were applied to a cold-atom-interferometer gyroscope, and the contrast of atomic interference fringes was found to reach 38%. This compact multi-channel generator with fast frequency/amplitude switching and/or sweeping capability will be beneficial for applications in field-portable atom interferometers.
The generation and manipulation of ultracold atomic ensembles in the quantum regime require the application of dynamically controllable microwave fields with ultra-low noise performance. Here, we present a low-phase-noise microwave source with two independently controllable output paths. Both paths generate frequencies in the range of 6.835 GHz ± 25 MHz for hyperfine transitions in 87Rb. The presented microwave source combines two commercially available frequency synthesizers: an ultra-low-noise oscillator at 7 GHz and a direct digital synthesizer for radio frequencies. We demonstrate a low integrated phase noise of 480 µrad in the range of 10 Hz to 100 kHz and fast updates of frequency, amplitude, and phase in sub-µs time scales. The highly dynamic control enables the generation of shaped pulse forms and the deployment of composite pulses to suppress the influence of various noise sources.