written by Mark F. Masters, Tanner Heral, and Kakathi Tummala

We have recently started investigating single photon experiments for our advanced laboratory and quantum mechanics classes. For a small department, the expenses of much of the apparatus is daunting. As such, we look for places where we can reduce the costs while still providing benefits for our students. One of the places where there can be some cost savings are in the coincidence counting unit. The coincidence counting unit is a critical piece of the investigation, and while not the most expensive component, cost savings are still available. We have developed a low-cost coincidence counter (less than $50) based on a Cypress Programmable System on a Chip (PSoC). The PSoC is quite flexible and has both microcontroller as well as FPGA like capabilities which enable us to build the coincidence detection and the counter. The design process and several investigations will be presented.

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Published November 17, 2015
Last Modified November 17, 2015

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