The University of Innsbruck’s Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information have purchased Spectrum Instrumentation M4I 6631-x8 Arbitrary Waveform Generator, praising it’s versatility and precision.
Spectrum Instrumentation GmbH, founded in 1989 and formerly known as Spectrum Systementwicklung Microelectronic GmbH, are innovators in modular design as applied to digitizer and generator products. Available in the most popular industry standards: PCIe, LXI and PXIe, their high performance PC-based test and measurement instruments are used for electronic signal capture, generation and analysis.
Given their reputation and expertise it is not surprising to learn that the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information at the University of Innsbruck, Austria has chosen a Spectrum Arbitrary Waveform Generator (AWG), the M4i.6631-x8 for their research. The Institute required an AWG that could generate a wide variety of signals to match the complexity and breath of their research and easily programmed by PC. The M4i.6631-x8 is built on PCI Express card and so can be incorporated directly into a PC and then driven by it.
Two applications highlight Spectrum Instrumentation’s AWG’s versatility. The first is the cancellation, via destructive interference, of undesired frequency mixing terms that arise, for example, when applying multiple-frequency signals to an acousto-optic modulator. The second application involves the utilisation of a multiple-frequency signal in the radio frequency regime. Each frequency component being realised using a sinusoidal function with the resulting beat signal used to simultaneously address individual ions in a trapped-ion quantum simulator.
As the Institute researcher Christine Maier says of the M4i.6631-x8: “It is highly configurable. Two AWG channels, a choice of trigger options, external clock inputs, multiple and gated replay modes, looping functions, and even the possibility to combine two trigger inputs via logic gates. This combined with the high resolution and a sampling rate of 1.25 GS/s made it the logical choice to provide the flexibility for the projects that we have now and, importantly, whatever needs we may have in the future with just one instrument.”
