Nanomechanics

News and Updates

Quantum Thermometer or Optical Refrigerator?

June 22, 2017

In an arranged marriage of optics and mechanics, physicists have created microscopic structural beams that have a variety of powerful uses when light strikes

schematic of laser light interacting with a plasmonic gap resonator

NIST Device for Detecting Subatomic-Scale Motion Has Potential Robotics, Homeland Security Applications

December 15, 2016

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new device that measures the motion of super-tiny particles traversing

NIST Unveils Forensic Technique to Measure Mechanical Properties of Evidence

November 1, 2016

You may have seen it on CSI: The star examines hair from a crime scene and concludes its color or texture looks like the defendant’s hair, or maybe his dog’s

Projects and Programs

Nanotribology for Nanomanufacturing (Archived)

Completed

Tribology is the science and technology of interacting surfaces in relative motion and includes studies of friction, adhesion, lubrication, and wear

Nanoscale Strength Measurements for Device Technologies

Ongoing

To develop new mechanical test structures and methodologies based on microelectromechanical and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS and NEMS) manufacturing

Strain Mapping and Simulation

Ongoing

We employ combined measurement and modeling to enhance understanding and capability of nanoscale strain-mapping via super-resolution confocal Raman microscopy

Fundamentals of Deformation

Ongoing

This project provides new measurement methods, property data and simulations for areas critical to US manufacturing, describing the mechanisms responsible for

Publications

Certification of Standard Reference Material® 3461 Reference Cantilevers for AFM Spring Constant Calibration

August 15, 2022

Author(s)

Richard S. Gates, William Alexander Osborn, Mark McLean, Gordon A. Shaw, James J. Filliben

A batch of 94 silicon chips containing arrays of uniform rectangular cantilevers were microfabricated from a single silicon wafer and their stiffnesses and

Anisotropic Acoustodynamics in Gigahertz Piezoelectric Ultrasonic Transducers

May 30, 2022

Author(s)

Jingjie Cheng, Zhaoliang Peng, Penghui Song, Bo Peng, Jason J. Gorman, Justin Kuo, Amit Lal, Wenming Zhang, Lei Shao

In this work, we employed our newly developed optical imaging method to probe detailed acoustodynamic physics in gigahertz (GHz) unreleased ultrasonic

Piezoelectric optomechanical approaches towards quantum microwave-to-optical signal transduction: the need for co-design

March 1, 2022

Author(s)

Krishna Coimbatore Balram, Kartik Srinivasan

Piezoelectric optomechanical platforms represent one of the most promising routes towards achieving quantum transduction of photons between the microwave and

A 3-DOF MEMS motion stage for scanning tunneling microscopy

January 1, 2022

Author(s)

Taekyung Kim, Jason J. Gorman

Piezoelectric tube scanners used in most conventional scanning tunneling microscopes (STM) are highly resonant mechanisms that require a low-bandwidth