Elliot Scientific has introduced the ICE Box, an integrated control electronics system for semiconductor lasers from Vescent Photonics.
ICE Box is a suite of compact digitally controlled electronics that drive and stabilise a range of semiconductor lasers and associated photonics tools used in applications such as atomic clocks, BEC or cold atom experiments, quantum computing, and cryptography devices.
Based on the same high-performance D2 series electronics from Vescent Photonics, the ICE Box system is compatible with all current Vescent D2 modules and can be used to drive and control a complete stabilised-laser system, overseeing frequency and temperature, offset lock DBR, DFB, or external cavity lasers.
It can also control a tapered amplifier or a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) operating either as an amplifier or as a high-contrast non-mechanical shutter, and a liquid crystal shutter.
Each ICE Box control board is controlled via USB in a language such as LabView, Matlab, Python, Java, and so on. An intuitive GUI can also be used to issue commands and control the experiment or, if installed in the ICE Box, a front-panel control is included.