A flexible control system for atomic, molecular and optical physics experiments

Abstract: We have implemented a control system for experiments in atomic, molecular and optical physics based on a commercial low-cost board, featuring a field-programmable gate array as part of a system-on-a-chip on which a Linux operating system is running. The board features Gigabit Ethernet, allowing for fast data transmission and operation of remote experimental systems. A single board can control a set of devices generating digital, analog and radio frequency signals with a precise timing given either by an external or internal clock. Contiguous output and input sampling rates of up to 40 MHz are achievable. Several boards can run synchronously with a timing error approaching 1 ns. For this purpose, a novel auto-synchronization scheme is demonstrated, with possible application in complex distributed experimental setups with demanding timing requests.