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Physical Measurement Laboratory

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NIST Physicists ‘Flash-freeze’ Crystal of 150 Ions

February 20, 2019

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have “flash-frozen” a flat crystal of 150 beryllium ions (electrically charged atoms)...

Man in goggles standing next to and looking into a large box with open lid showing what appears to be electrical equipment and wiring inside

NIST ‘Astrocomb’ Opens New Horizons for Planet-Hunting Telescope

February 19, 2019

The hunt for Earth-like planets, and perhaps extraterrestrial life, just got more precise, thanks to record-setting starlight measurements made possible by a...

After 90 Years, a Better Way to Measure the Composition of Paper

February 14, 2019

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), in collaboration with the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO), have developed a...

Probing surface structure: Three pioneering PML instruments on display

February 12, 2019

Three of the pioneering instruments that unveiled the magnetic and electronic structure of surfaces in exquisite detail are now on display in the atrium of NIST...

Rulers of light shining on individual buckyballs

JILA Researchers Uncover Quantum Structure of Buckyballs

January 28, 2019

JILA researchers have measured hundreds of individual quantum energy levels in the buckyball, a spherical cage of 60 carbon atoms.

Next-Generation Chips Require Multiple Measurement Approaches

December 12, 2018

Measurement science—or metrology—is critically important in computer chips, from design to manufacturing and quality control. The metrology requirements for...

NIST Atomic Clocks Now Keep Time Well Enough to Improve Models of Earth

November 28, 2018

Experimental atomic clocks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have achieved three new performance records, now ticking precisely...

Photonic Radiation Sensors Survive Huge Doses Undamaged

November 27, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have published landmark test results that suggest a promising class of sensors can be...

New Device Widens Light Beams by 400 Times, Broadening Possibilities in Science and Technology

November 27, 2018

By using light waves instead of electric current to transmit data, photonic chips—circuits for light—have advanced fundamental research in many areas from...

NIST Study Resolves Fine Details of How Microscopic Machines Can Fail in the Blink of an Eye

November 27, 2018

How long can tiny gears and other microscopic moving parts last before they wear out? What are the warning signs that these components are about to fail, which...

White Cat Hair on Black Pants: International Study Measures Stability of Precision Masses to Benefit Trade

November 26, 2018

When are two nominally identical kilogram masses no longer identical? When each goes to a different place and adsorbs varying amounts of moisture and...

JILA Researchers See Signs of Interactive Form of Quantum Matter

October 31, 2018

JILA researchers have, for the first time, isolated groups of a few atoms and precisely measured their multi-particle interactions within an atomic clock. The...

Nanofabulous: An intern who mentored interns

October 30, 2018

When NanoFab intern Patricio Flores donned a bunny suit for the first time last January, he had never been inside a cleanroom or worked with the precision tools...

A New Way to Measure Nearly Nothing

October 19, 2018

Many semiconductor fabricators and research labs are under increasing pressure from, of all things, vacuum. These facilities need to remove greater amounts of...

NIST Launches Consortium to Support Development of Quantum Industry

September 28, 2018

GAITHERSBURG, Md.—The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has signed a cooperative research and development...

NIST’s Electro-Optic Laser Pulses 100 Times Faster Than Usual Ultrafast Light

September 27, 2018

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used common electronics to build a laser that pulses 100 times more often than...

NIST Updates Forensic Standard Reference Materials

September 19, 2018

At forensic science labs, analysts literally weigh the evidence. They also measure it in other ways. They use microscopes, DNA profiling kits, chemical...

Introducing the ‘Smart Mirror’

September 17, 2018

Lasers play roles in many manufacturing processes, from welding car parts to crafting engine components with 3D printers.* To control these tasks, manufacturers...

Transparent image shaped like wedding cake atop a honeycomb-like lattice with green squiggly lines

A Novel Graphene Quantum Dot Structure Takes the Cake

August 23, 2018

In a marriage of quantum science and solid-state physics, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used magnetic fields to...

An electron micrograph showing many blue-colored nanoscale (billionth of a meter) particles of varying sizes and shapes scattered atop a silicon wafer.

Connecting the (Nano) Dots: NIST Says Big-Picture Thinking Can Advance Nanoparticle Manufacturing

August 22, 2018

Nanoparticle manufacturing, the production of material units less than 100 nanometers in size (100,000 times smaller than a marble), is proving the adage that...

Helping the Microchip Industry Go (Very Low) with the Flow

August 22, 2018

A new study by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has uncovered a source of error in an industry-standard calibration...

Exactly how loud is that jackhammer?

August 17, 2018

When a jackhammer starts pounding outside your window at 7 o’clock on a Monday morning, you might find it annoying. For the worker who is running that...

NIST Chip Lights Up Optical Neural Network Demo

July 26, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made a silicon chip that distributes optical signals precisely across a miniature...

The Shape in Water

July 23, 2018

Tinkering with a method they helped develop over the last few years, scientists have for the first time used it to measure at the nanometer scale the...

Through a Prism Brightly: A New Way to Measure the Light-Warping Properties of Hyperbolic Metamaterials

June 18, 2018

Manipulating light in a variety of ways—shrinking its wavelength and allowing it to travel freely in one direction while stopping it cold in another--hyperbolic...

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