Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

An open source digital servo for atomic, molecular, and optical physics experiments

Published

Author(s)

David R. Leibrandt, Jason Heidecker

Abstract

We describe a general purpose digital servo optimized for feedback control of lasers in atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics experiments. The servo is capable of feedback bandwidths up to roughly 1~MHz; loop filter shapes up to fifth order; multiple-input, multiple-output control; and automatic lock acquisition. The configuration of the servo is controlled via a graphical user interface, which also provides a rudimentary software oscilloscope and tools for measurement of system transfer functions. We illustrate the functionality of the digital servo by describing its use in two example scenarios: frequency control of the laser used to probe the narrow clock transition of 27Al+ in an optical atomic clock, and length control of a cavity used for resonant frequency doubling of a laser.
Citation
Review of Scientific Instruments
Volume
86

Keywords

control systems, digital signal processing, servo devices

Citation

Leibrandt, D. and Heidecker, J. (2015), An open source digital servo for atomic, molecular, and optical physics experiments, Review of Scientific Instruments, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=919237 (Accessed November 21, 2024)

Issues

If you have any questions about this publication or are having problems accessing it, please contact reflib@nist.gov.

Created December 30, 2015, Updated August 10, 2018