Materials characterization

News and Updates

A red cylinder made of lipids has five protruding multicolored proteins.

NIST Clarifies Structure of Prospective Vaccine for Respiratory Virus

December 16, 2020

No approved vaccine exists for RSV, a life-threatening virus that attacks the respiratory system. State-of-the-art neutron and X-ray scattering performed at the

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

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

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

Femtosecond Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy of Nanoscale Materials

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

Publications

Extreme Ultraviolet Radiation Pulsed Atom Probe Tomography of III-Nitride Semiconductor Materials

February 18, 2021

Author(s)

Luis Miaja Avila, Benjamin Caplins, Ann Debay, Paul T. Blanchard, Matthew D. Brubaker, Albert Davydov, David R. Diercks, Brian Gorman, Ashwin Rishinaramangalam, Daniel Feezell, Kristine A. Bertness, Norman Sanford

Report from the Photopolymer Additive Manufacturing Workshop: Roadmapping a Future for Stereolithography, Inkjet, and Beyond

January 19, 2021

Author(s)

Callie I. Higgins, Jason P. Killgore, Dianne L. Poster

This document is the report of a workshop held at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, CO October 2019 seeking input from

Characteristics and Mechanisms of Hydrogen-Induced Quasi-Cleavage Fracture of Lath Martensitic Steel

January 10, 2021

Author(s)

Lawrence Cho, Peter E. Bradley, Damian S. Lauria, May L. Martin, Matthew J. Connolly, Jake Benzing, Eun Jung Seo, Kip O. Findley, John G. Speer, Andrew J. Slifka

This study presents an in-depth characterization of the microstructures, crystallographic orientations, and dislocation characteristics beneath the hydrogen

A technique to measure spin-dependent trapping events at the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor interface: Near zero field spin-dependent charge pumping

December 28, 2020

Author(s)

Mark A. Anders, Patrick M. Lenahan, Nicholas J. Harmon, Michael E. Flatte

We discuss a new technique to measure spin dependent trapping events at the MOSFET interface named near zero field spin dependent charge pumping (NZF SDCP)

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