Modularity in Software-Hardware Interaction for Experimental Physics, an Example

Software-hardware interfacing is vital to experimental physics, and is often used to automate data collection and analysis. However, while technologies like Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (VISA) exist, modularity is still not common in homemade software for research. Code written by researchers, despite using the same equipment, often does not get preserved, and generally does not align with the Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) paradigm. Here, we present "nanosquared", a Python interfacing package that is highly modular and extensively tested for laser M² measurements. Such modularity aims to increase code re-usability/longevity and lower barriers-of-entry for software development.