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Physical Measurement Laboratory

News and Updates

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Safeguarding Critical Infrastructure: NIST Releases Draft Cybersecurity Guidance, Develops GPS-Free Backup for Timing Systems

October 23, 2020

Taking another step toward strengthening the nation’s critical infrastructure, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has drafted guidelines...

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...

What Laser Color Do You Like?

October 13, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have developed a microchip technology that can convert...

A Billion Tiny Pendulums Could Detect the Universe’s Missing Mass

October 13, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have proposed a novel method for finding dark matter, the cosmos’s...

Thermal MagIC: New NIST Project to Build Nano-Thermometers Could Revolutionize Temperature Imaging

October 9, 2020

Cheaper refrigerators? Stronger hip implants? A better understanding of human disease? All of these could be possible and more, someday, thanks to an ambitious...

Quantum Matchmaking: New NIST System Detects Ultra-Faint Communications Signals Using the Principles of Quantum Physics

September 23, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have devised and demonstrated a system that could dramatically increase the performance...

A man in safety goggles gives a thumbs-up while sitting at a computer.

Spotlight: Theorizing Between Postdoc and Adviser About the Future of DNA Origami

September 22, 2020

Some assembly required — NIST postdoctoral researcher Jacob Majikes takes the smallest fragments of life and combines them into new structures ... or rather...

NIST Scientists Get Soft on 3D Printing

September 22, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new method of 3D-printing gels and other soft materials. Published in...

woman makes adjustments to optics on a laser bench

Spotlight: Alejandra Collopy's Exploration of the Quantum World

September 21, 2020

It’s the little things that make all the difference for NIST postdoctoral researcher Alejandra Collopy ... and by little, we mean quantum. She’s part of a team...

Quantum Economic Development Consortium Confirms Steering Committee

September 16, 2020

GAITHERSBURG, Md. — The Quantum Economic Development Consortium (QED-C) has formally established its steering committee with the signing of participation...

NIST Scientists Reveal the Power Behind the Curtain — With Neutrons

September 16, 2020

In a potential step forward for imaging technology, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Sandia National Laboratories...

Painting With Light: Novel Nanopillars Precisely Control the Color and Intensity of Transmitted Light

September 4, 2020

By shining white light on a glass slide stippled with millions of tiny titanium dioxide pillars, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and...

Making the DNA Melt Curve More Accurate

August 18, 2020

DNA is not only the blueprint of life; it has become the backbone for making tiny structures that can be inserted into the human body to diagnose and treat...

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...

Spotlight: Ultraprecise Time Signals Travel Across 28 Kilometers

August 3, 2020

Timekeeping slippin’ into the future: For the first time, a NIST team transferred ultraprecise time signals over 28 kilometers of turbulent airspace (the...

Shrinking (Ultra)Violet

July 21, 2020

While awaiting full access to their labs due to COVID-19 restrictions, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken this...

Atomic ‘Swiss Army Knife’ Precisely Measures Materials for Quantum Computers

July 6, 2020

It images single atoms. It maps atomic-scale hills and valleys on metal and insulating surfaces. And it records the flow of current across atom-thin materials...

cryogenically cooled laser microresonator frequency comb

Comb on a Chip: New Design for ‘Optical Ruler’ Could Revolutionize Clocks, Telescopes, Telecommunications

June 22, 2020

Just as a meter stick with hundreds of tick marks can be used to measure distances with great precision, a device known as a laser frequency comb, with its...

Flat, round shape in various shades of orange color, with copper wiring and other decorations covering the top third and a small, square black object surrounded by a gold frame in the center.

NIST Researchers Boost Microwave Signal Stability a Hundredfold

May 21, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used state-of-the-art atomic clocks, advanced light detectors, and a measurement...

Man with dark hair and wearing a blue shirt and laser safety goggles standing on the right and facing to the left as he reaches into a two-level laboratory table full of optics and other equipment.

NIST Team Builds Hybrid Quantum System by Entangling Molecule With Atom

May 20, 2020

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have boosted their control of the fundamental properties of molecules at the quantum...

Overhead view of a room full of scientific equipment

Spotlight: SURF and Solar Storms

May 14, 2020

When the surface of the Sun erupts, it emits dangerous particles that can knock out GPS and communication links on our planet, but the rain of particles from a...

Yoshi Ohno poses behind a table holding brightly colored foods like red peppers and bananas.

Spotlight: Yoshi Ohno and the Vision Lab

May 12, 2020

In arguably the coziest laboratory on NIST’s campus in Gaithersburg, Maryland, fellow Yoshi Ohno and his colleagues make measurements on the white light...

NIST Scientists Create New Recipe for Single-Atom Transistors

May 11, 2020

Once unimaginable, transistors consisting only of several-atom clusters or even single atoms promise to become the building blocks of a new generation of...

Helping Laser Scanners Measure Up

April 23, 2020

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have devised a novel, accurate, easy-to-operate, time- and labor-saving way to provide...

To Tune Up Your Quantum Computer, Better Call an AI Mechanic

March 31, 2020

A high-end race car engine needs all its components tuned and working together precisely to deliver top-quality performance. The same can be said about the...

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