Materials characterization

News and Updates

Side-by-side photos show twin brothers posing with arms crossed in lab or office settings.

Spotlight: Two Brothers, One Passion for Mechanical Engineering

September 20, 2022

This is a tale of two brothers who both found a passion for mechanical engineering research, separated to pursue their own interests in graduate school, and

Polette Centellas wears safety glasses as she leans toward the camera while adjusting a scientific device on a lab table.

Spotlight: Making an Impact in Aerospace Materials With Polette Centellas

September 15, 2022

NIST researchers are measuring the way different materials hold up when hit with the force of a speeding object.

No Fib: NIST Unmasks a Superfast Process for Nanoscale Machining

August 23, 2022

Cutting intricate patterns as small as several billionths of a meter deep and wide, the focused ion beam (FIB) is an essential tool for deconstructing and

Projects and Programs

Measuring Intermolecular Interactions with Electro-Acoustic Spectroscopy

Ongoing

NIST’s Material Measurement Laboratory and Communications Technology Laboratory are developing a new spectroscopy for intermolecular interactions. The team is

Microplastic and Nanoplastic Metrology

Ongoing

The mission of the Micro and Nanoplastic (MNP) Metrology Project is to assist regulators in assessing the human health and environmental risks associated with

Femtosecond Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy of Nanoscale Materials

Ongoing

Condensed matter dynamics can evolve on a subpicosecond timescale, too fast to follow using many characterization techniques. We use femtosecond optical pulses

Optical and Optoelectronic Materials Characterization

Ongoing

This project aims to develop rigorous measurements and methodology needed for determining optical and electrical properties of advanced materials that might be

Publications

A new approach to electrically detected magnetic resonance: spin dependent transient spectroscopy

September 15, 2022

Author(s)

Kenneth Myers, Patrick Lenahan, James Ashton, Jason Ryan

Electrically detected magnetic resonance (EDMR) is arguably the most sensitive method available to study electrically active point defects in semiconductor

Improved Uranium Particle Analysis by SIMS using O3- Primary Ions

September 6, 2022

Author(s)

Evan Groopman, Todd Williamson, David S. Simons

We have investigated the use of negative molecular oxygen primary ion beams (i.e., O2- and O3-) to determine the benefits of using such beams for uranium

Scalable additive construction of arrayed microstructures with encoded properties for bioimaging

August 25, 2022

Author(s)

Matthew DiSalvo, Belén Cortés Llanos, Cody LaBelle, David Murdoch, Nancy Allbritton

Microarrays are essential components of analytical instruments. The elements of microarrays may be imbued with additional functionalities and encodings using

Phase transformation dynamics guided alloy design for additive manufacturing

August 23, 2022

Author(s)

Qilin Guo, Minglei Qu, Chihpin Chuang, Lianghua Xiong, Ali Nabaa, Zachary Young, Yang Ren, Peter Kenesei, Fan Zhang, Lianyi Chen

Fusion-based additive manufacturing technologies enable the fabrication of geometrically and compositionally complex parts unachievable by conventional

Software

NIST DTSA-II

February 1, 2018

NIST DTSA-II builds on the best available algorithms in the literature to simulate, quantify and plan energy dispersive x-ray analysis measurements.

Custom Lifetime Imaging Platform (CLIP)

CLIP is an analysis program for fluorescence lifetime images. It provides the user with the ability to fit or calculate the phasor plots for lifetime decays

Tools and Instruments

Focused Ion Beam (Helios 660)

The Helios 660 NanoLab(HNL660) is a Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with spectroscopic detectors to allow elemental and phase

Rubber Process Analyzer

The TA Instruments RPA elite rubber process analyzer (RPA) is a strain-controlled rotational shear rheometer for the characterization of polymers, composites

Focused Ion Beam

The Nova NanoLab 600 (NNL600) is a Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with spectroscopic detectors to allow elemental and phase measurements

X-Ray Diffractometer

The Bruker D8 defractometer is a general purpose X-ray diffraction system. The instrument features easy reconfiguration of the X-ray optics for a variety of

Materials characterization