Materials characterization

News and Updates

An illustration for AI shows a silhouette of a human head containing icons for computer networks.

NIST AI System Discovers New Material

November 24, 2020

When the words “artificial intelligence” (AI) come to mind, your first thoughts may be of super-smart computers, or robots that perform tasks without needing

NIST Designs a Prototype Fuel Gauge for Orbit

November 12, 2020

Liquids aren’t as well behaved in space as they are on Earth. Inside a spacecraft, microgravity allows liquids to freely slosh and float about. This behavior

A novel, low-cost method detects nanoscale contaminants during manufacture of semiconductor devices

October 19, 2020

As computer chips and other electronic devices continue to shrink in size, they become ever more sensitive to contamination. However, detecting the nanoscale

Spin Wave Detective Story Redux: NIST Researchers Find More Surprising Behavior in a 2D Magnet

August 4, 2020

A few months ago, a team of scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reported something surprising about a 2D magnetic material

Projects and Programs

Electric-acoustic spectroscopy for intermolecular interactions in solution

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

PTIR combines the spatial resolution of AFM with the specificity of absorption spectroscopy

Nano-Chemical Imaging and -Spectroscopy (IR, nIR, VIS)

Conventional techniques for analyzing chemical composition, such as infrared (IR) microscopy often miss critically important nanoscale details. To overcome this

Optical and Optoelectronic Materials Characterization

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

Neuromorphic Device Measurements

Neuromorphic computing is a radical new approach to information processing for artificial intelligence where, instead of using digital electronics, inspiration

Publications

Calibration Procedures for Orthogonal Superposition Rheology

November 18, 2020

Author(s)

Ran Tao, Aaron M. Forster

Orthogonal superposition (OSP) rheology is an advanced rheological technique that involves superimposing a small-amplitude oscillatory shear deformation

Materials Research & Measurement Needs for Ceramics Additive Manufacturing

November 1, 2020

Author(s)

Andrew J. Allen, Igor Levin, Suzanne E. Witt

We report on a recent workshop dedicated to additive manufacturing (AM) of ceramics that was held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

Towards data-driven next-generation transmission electron microscopy

October 26, 2020

Author(s)

Steven R. Spurgeon, Colin Ophus, Lewys Jones, Amanda K. Petford-Long, Sergei Kalinin, Matthew J. Olszta, Rafal Dunin-Borkowski, Norman Salmon, Khalid Hattar, Wei-Chang D. Yang, Renu Sharma, Yingge Du, Ann C. Chiaramonti Debay, Haimei Zheng, Edgar C. Buck, Libor Kovarik, R. Lee Penn, Dongsheng Li, Xin Zhang, Mitsuhiro Murayama, Mitra D. Taheri

The rapidly evolving field of electron microscopy touches nearly every aspect of modern life, underpinning impactful materials discoveries in applications such

Orientation Mapping of Graphene Using 4D STEM-in-SEM

October 13, 2020

Author(s)

Benjamin W. Caplins, Jason D. Holm, Ryan M. White, Robert R. Keller

A scanning diffraction technique is implemented in the scanning electron microscope. The technique, referred to as 4D STEM-in-SEM (four-dimensional scanning

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

Atom Probe Tomography (LEAP 4000X Si/HR – Local Electrode Atom Probe)

LEAP 4000X Si/HR Imaging time-of-flight mass spectrometer and field ion microscope. Can deliver 3-D, isotopically- and chemically- resolved images Sub-nanometer

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

A picture of the NIST resonant soft xray instrument and visiting NIST scientists

Polarized Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering (P-RSoXS)

Polarized resonant soft X-ray scattering (PR-SoXS) is an emerging powerhouse characterization of soft materials, providing an ability to characterize spatial

Instrument scientists Conan Weiland (left) and Nick Quackenbush (right) at the Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectrometer (HAXPES).

Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (HAXPES)

The Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (HAXPES) end station uses a tunable, focused X-ray beam in the tender spectrum (2.0 keV to 7.5 keV) to probe the depth

Materials characterization

News and Updates

NIST AI System Discovers New Material

NIST Designs a Prototype Fuel Gauge for Orbit

A novel, low-cost method detects nanoscale contaminants during manufacture of semiconductor devices

Spin Wave Detective Story Redux: NIST Researchers Find More Surprising Behavior in a 2D Magnet

Projects and Programs

Electric-acoustic spectroscopy for intermolecular interactions in solution

Nano-Chemical Imaging and -Spectroscopy (IR, nIR, VIS)

Optical and Optoelectronic Materials Characterization

Neuromorphic Device Measurements

Publications

Calibration Procedures for Orthogonal Superposition Rheology

Materials Research & Measurement Needs for Ceramics Additive Manufacturing

Towards data-driven next-generation transmission electron microscopy

Orientation Mapping of Graphene Using 4D STEM-in-SEM

Software

NIST DTSA-II

Custom Lifetime Imaging Platform (CLIP)

Tools and Instruments

Atom Probe Tomography (LEAP 4000X Si/HR – Local Electrode Atom Probe)

Focused Ion Beam (Helios 660)

Polarized Resonant Soft X-ray Scattering (P-RSoXS)

Hard X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (HAXPES)

Awards

Terrence Jach Named American Vacuum Society Fellow

MML Project Leader Enrico Lucon Receives ASTM International Award of Merit

2018 ACS PMSE Fellow

2017 American Physical Society Fellow