Arbitrary Wave Generator (AWG)

Introduction

An arbitrary wave generator (AWG) is a key part of our experiment, especially for quantum gate operations. Here at NYU we use Keysight M3201A and Keysight M3201A for our AWG card and this server (keysight_awg) is thus implemented for these two AWG cards. The AWG is used in a similar way as a DDS, as we use it to control the analog signals of our experiment (mainly to AOMs and then modulate our laser light). But the difference between a DDS and an AWG is that it can take in an array of time-series data and output exactly what the array specifies with a time resolution of 1 or 2 ns. On the other hand, a DDS usually takes in inputs of frequency domain parameters such as a frequency, an amplitude, and a phase and outputs a sinewave with these parameters. So an AWG can have more degrees of freedom and is especially helpful when we need complicated pulses that modulate multiple frequencies together (e.g. a Molmer-Sorensen gate).

Running the server

There are multiple ways of running LabRAD server. The easiest is to run this python script itself. At the end of this script, you will see

if __name__ == "__main__":
    from labrad import util
    util.runServer( Keysightawg() )

So if you run this script in the command_line like python PATH-TO\servers\control_instruments\awg\keysightawg.py it will run this chunk of code.

KeysightAWG Server