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Physical Measurement Laboratory

News and Updates

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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...

Divide and Conquer: New Algorithm Examines Crime-Scene Bullets Segment by Segment

March 26, 2020

On the morning of March 22, 1915, residents of the small town of West Shelby, New York, awoke to a horrific scene. A woman clad only in a bloodied nightgown lay...

Roll-Up TVs and Bendable Smartphones: Toward More Choices for Flexible Electronic Materials

March 6, 2020

Have you heard of foldable smartphones? How about the flexible television screen that rolls up into a box? Or the ultrathin “wallpaper” TVs that are just...

Getting a closer look at living cells and batteries: a little bit of graphene goes a long way

March 6, 2020

Researchers at NIST have devised a way to eliminate a long-standing problem affecting our understanding of both living cells and batteries. When a solid and an...

How Low Can You Go? Lower Than Ever Before

February 26, 2020

Silicon, the best-known semiconductor, is ubiquitous in electronic devices including cellphones, laptops and the electronics in cars. Now, researchers at the...

Spotlight: Addressing the Minuscule Measuring Needs of the Nanotechnology Community

February 21, 2020

A tooth? An angel? A strong man? Instead of seeing patterns in clouds, our scientists go to the microscope! NIST’s Ravi Attota uses a simple optical microscope...

A Spin Wave Detective Story: NIST Researchers Verify Surprising Behavior in a 2D Magnet

February 18, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a surprising feature in two-dimensional (2D) magnets, a new class of...

Spotlight: Radiometric Dating

February 14, 2020

Dating can be complicated. Our team uses this instrument — a live-timed anticoincidence counter — to figure the decay rate of an isotope, which we can then use...

Opposite sides of a quartz crystal resonator

Universe in the Balance

February 12, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have found a way to link measurements made by a device integral to microchip...

STM image of electrons in two coupled quantum dots

What a Pair! Coupled Quantum Dots May Offer a New Way to Store Quantum Information

January 29, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have for the first time created and imaged a novel pair of quantum...

Black and white micrograph of tiny cubes clustered together.

Spotlight: Polymer Microparticle Molds

January 26, 2020

Forget ice cube trays … we have microscopic molds for any shape we want. Scientists at NIST can now pour a polymer liquid into a template to make exact shapes —...

Design in dark and light blue with a circular pattern surrounded by a square.

Spotlight: Silicon-28 in Quantum Computers

January 11, 2020

Silicon, found everywhere from the brick in your fireplace to the sand between your toes at the beach, also forms the basis of microchips in conventional...

NIST Study Suggests Universal Method for Measuring Light Power

December 20, 2019

Always on the lookout for better ways to measure all kinds of things, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have published a...

A man in safety glasses stands near a rack of equipment in a darkened lab.

Counting Photons Is Now Routine Enough to Need Standards

December 20, 2019

Since the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) built its first superconducting devices for counting photons (the smallest units of light) in...

A New Playbook for Interference

December 17, 2019

Particles can sometimes act like waves, and photons (particles of light) are no exception. Just as waves create an interference pattern, like ripples on a pond...

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