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Physical Measurement Laboratory

Applied Physics Division

Projects/Programs

Displaying 26 - 50 of 56
MRI biomarker measurement service

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Biomarker Measurement Service

Ongoing
Biomarkers are parameters that can be quantitatively measured in-vivo and provide information on tissue health/ pathology. Phantoms are medical imaging calibration structures designed to test scanner performance, image quality, and image-based measurements.
Magnetic shielded room

Magnetic Sensing and Metrology

Ongoing
Magnetic sensors have a wide range of sensitivities, spatial resolution, dynamic range, bandwidths, size, and cost. Applications such as magnetic data storage and chip NDE require sensitivity of 1 nT, spatial resolution down to a few nanometers and bandwidths up to 10 GHz, while MEG requires
summary plot

Metal Additive Manufacturing Laser Power Assessment

Ongoing
A calibrated (U=1.2 %, k=2) power meter was taken to a variety of AM locations (industry, academic, government, DoD) to anonymously assess the accuracy with which these institutions know the laser power being delivered to the workpiece. At each site, the LPBF operator was asked to use the AM system
nano-biophotonics collage

Nano-biophotonics for molecular imaging

Ongoing
Nano-biophotonics consists of four broad areas: molecular bioimaging; nano-biosensors; multiplexed bioassays ; and nanotechnology-based medical practices for diagnosis and therapy. Success in these areas is challenged by the underlying complexity of biological systems. Major levels of complexity and
(a) Schematic of a near-field scanning microwave microscope (NSMM). (b) NSMM images of a perovskite PV sample, (c) NSMM MoS2 back-gate device, (d) Spatial imaging of excited spin wave modes.

Nanoelectromagnetics

Ongoing
The primary goal of this program is metrology that enables advanced nanoscale device (including electronics, spintronics, and life science) development. Based on current trends in electronics, we are focusing on metrology for two classes of devices: (1) nanoscale devices utilizing and exploring new
Thin film RGTM, both whole sister wafer and diced wafers for NIST Measurement

Nanometer-Scale Planar Reference Materials

Ongoing
In most industrial fabs today, foundry test artifacts (wafers) are used to test metrology tools and monitor process stability. These wafers are made in partnerships between specific materials providers and metrology tool providers and may have limited or no adoption across foundries. In some
nanopillars

Nanophononic Metamaterials for Thermoelectrics

Ongoing
About 68 % of the energy produced in the United States is wasted as heat lost to the environment. About a quarter of this lost heat is present at temperature gradients suitable for recovery with thermoelectric devices, which use the ability of semiconductors to generate electricity directly from
A scanning electron micrograph of a QDOGFET device used for photon number-resolving detection.

Nanostructure Fabrication and Metrology

Completed
This project develops semiconductor nanostructures, especially self-assembled quantum dots and photonic crystals, for a variety of applications including single photonics, laser diodes, and quantum optical metrology. It also develops quantum optical metrology based on other sources and detectors
Detection Circuit and Layout of STO Chip

Neuromorphic Computing

Ongoing
Spin Torque Oscillators: The research at the heart of this effort is to better understand and control mutual synchronization of arrays of spintronic nanoscale oscillators operating in the range of 10 GHz to 40 GHz. The devices under study are well suited to neuromorphic applications because they are
Medical Imaging Phantom

NIST/NIBIB Medical Imaging Phantom Lending Library

Ongoing
Phantoms are calibration objects that can be used to assess the accuracy, stability, and comparability of medical imaging systems. The NIST/ISMRM MRI system phantom can be used to assess scanner geometric distortion, image uniformity, signal to noise ratio (SNR), resolution, slice profile and
micro-focus Brillouin Light scattering spectrometer

Optical and Microwave Spectroscopy of Microelectronic Systems

Ongoing
Collaborations with industry leaders have led to new understanding of magnetic damping in advanced materials and replication of our magnetic metrology tools. We investigate fundamental aspects of spin transfer in materials and structures that offer improved performance in future devices such as
beam box

The Photoforce Project

Ongoing
Traditional power meters measure the power of a laser beam by absorbing its energy. Radiation pressure (photon momentum) permits the measurement of a beam’s power by “absorbing” its momentum and reflecting its energy. Light reflecting from a mirror causes a force that is proportional to its optical
Planar absolute cryogenic radiometer with multiwall vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes. Superconducting transition-edge sensor. Fully-lithographic fabrication.

Photonic Radiometry

Ongoing
Meeting the needs of the photonics industry and anticipating emerging technologies requires investigation and development of improved measurement methods and instrumentation. This project develops state-of-art, absolute microfabricated thermal detectors with absorber coatings consisting of carbon
He4 cryostat

Physics and Hardware for Intelligence

Ongoing
Our work in this area can be separated into two categories: conceptual and experimental. Please read our publications linked below for more information. Experimental: Our latest generation of synaptic circuits are described in a 2024 paper published in APL Machine Learning. These circuits are our
MRI standards

Quantitative MRI

Ongoing
Future directions may focus on multimodal imaging, techniques that use MRI as either a base or as a complimentary technique. Multimodal imaging combines information from two or more imaging modalities such as MRI, computed tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), and ultrasound (US)
equipment

Quantum Radiometry

Ongoing
For quantum applications, it is important to generate quantum states of light and detect them with extremely high efficiency. This project explores the metrology challenges associated with precision measurement of single photon sources and detectors. The classical photonic radiometry techniques used

Quantum State-Resolved Spectroscopic Techniques

Ongoing
Terahertz radiation interrogates the lowest frequency vibrational (phonon) modes of biomolecules. These modes characterize the incipient motions for large-scale conformational changes responsible for the backbone flexibility of protein, polynucleotide and polysaccharide. Thus, terahertz spectral
wafer

Single Photonics and Quantum Information

Ongoing
One of the activities in this group is the development of single photon technologies for quantum information science and technology. We work closely with the Nanostructure Fabrication and Metrology Project on the generation of novel non-classical states of light and the detection of single photons
SMART contrast agents

SMART Contrast Agents

Ongoing
Work on smart agents is focused on developing new micro- and nanoparticle- based contrast agents for MRI and new MR imaging and sensing schemes. These include synthetic antiferromagnet nanoparticles as potential new contrast agents, high-moment iron microparticles for enhanced T2* contrast for in
Fig. 1. Die containing 285 superparamagnetic tunnel junctions.

Spintronics for Neuromorphic Computing

Ongoing
Magnetic tunnel junctions (see Fig. 1) consist of two thin films of ferromagnetic material separated by a few atomic layers of an insulating material. The insulator is so thin that electrons can tunnel quantum mechanically through it. The rate at which the electrons tunnel is affected by the
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