LabVIEW Data Acquisition System

An integrated data acquisition and hardware control system is being designed as part of a new physics research laboratory at the University of Montana. The interface is being created within the National Instruments LabVIEW programming environment to control all aspects of this newly commissioned laser-based nanomaterials laboratory in the Department of Physics and Astronomy. The interface will control an in-vacuo, three-dimensional translation stage with 50 nanometer spatial resolution and will collect all data including photoelectron counting and Raman photon collection. These data will then be used to create two-dimensional images of the sample in real time to be displayed in LabVIEW. The interface is also being designed to accommodate the addition of a LabVIEW-controlled high-speed galvanometer mirror head scanning system that will improve the resolution of the instrument by a factor of 3. Included within this design is the capability to monitor and control several additional hardware systems, including a turbomolecular vacuum pumping system, a Coherent Verdi V6 high power continuous wave laser, and several sub systems controlling laser power and system temperature