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Physical Measurement Laboratory

News and Updates

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New JILA Apparatus Measures Fast Nanoscale Motions

March 16, 2007

A new nanoscale apparatus developed at JILA—a tiny gold beam whose 40 million vibrations per second are measured by hopping electrons—offers the potential for a...

First 2D Pictures of a 'Frequency Comb' Transform It into a Brush

February 7, 2007

BOULDER, Colo.—Physicists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken the first ever two-dimensional pictures...

Improved Nanodots Could Be Key to Future Data Storage

January 19, 2007

The massive global challenge of storing digital data—storage needs reportedly double every year—may be met with a tiny yet powerful solution: magnetic particles...

Countries Share Good Times Using GPS and the Internet

January 19, 2007

International time coordination is improving throughout the Americas thanks to a low-cost system relying on Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites and the...

NIST Laser-Based Method Cleans Up Grubby Nanotubes

December 21, 2006

Before carbon nanotubes can fulfill their promise as ultrastrong fibers, electrical wires in molecular devices, or hydrogen storage components for fuel cells...

New Targets May Hit Bull's-Eye for Chip Makers

December 7, 2006

The bull's-eye solution to the semiconductor industry's hunt for more exact means to measure the relative positions of ever-tinier devices squeezed by the...

NIST Physicist Wins APS Keithley Award

November 22, 2006

The American Physical Society (APS) has named National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) physicist Kent Irwin as the recipient of the society's 2007...

NIST Physicist Receives APS I.I. Rabi Prize

November 9, 2006

The American Physical Society (APS) announced last week the selection of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) physicist Jun Ye, to receive the...

NIST Staff Honored in 2006 Presidential Rank Awards

November 9, 2006

Five senior members of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) staff have been honored in the 2006 Presidential Rank Awards. The awards...

'Tornadoes' Are Transferred From Light to Sodium Atoms

November 9, 2006

For the first time, tornado-like rotational motions have been transferred from light to atoms in a controlled way at the National Institute of Standards and...

O'Brian Named Director of NIST Boulder Laboratories

October 26, 2006

Thomas R. O'Brian, chief of the Time and Frequency Division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), has been appointed director of the...

The NIST process for "purifying" an unusual property of quantum physics called entanglement involves illuminating two pairs of beryllium ions (charged atoms) with a series of ultraviolet laser pulses.

NIST Physicists Boost 'Entanglement' of Atom Pairs

October 18, 2006

BOULDER, Colo.—Physicists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken a significant step toward transforming...

NIST Releases New Standard for Semiconductor Industry

October 12, 2006

A wide range of optical electronic devices, from laser disk players to traffic lights, may be improved in the future thanks to a small piece of semiconductor...

Molecular Spintronic Action Confirmed in Nanostructure

October 12, 2006

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made the first confirmed "spintronic" device incorporating organic molecules, a...

NIST Physicist Awarded Service to America Medal

September 28, 2006

Dr. William D. Phillips, the first researcher from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to become a Nobel Laureate, has been awarded the...

Emergency Tests Focus on Lab Radioactivity Analyses

September 28, 2006

Working under severe time pressure, government laboratories can analyze radioactive samples fairly quickly—in a matter of hours—but with variable accuracy, and...

Small, Low-noise Oscillator May Help in Surveillance

September 14, 2006

A new design for a microwave oscillator that is smaller, simpler, and produces clearer signals at a single frequency than comparable devices has been invented...

Joint Quantum Institute Created by University of Maryland, NIST and NSA

September 11, 2006

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Today, the University of Maryland (UM), the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National...

NIST Scientists Use Electron Beam to Unravel the Secrets of an 'Atomic Switch'

August 17, 2006

GAITHERSBURG, MD –Scientists at the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used a beam of electrons to move a single...

Two NIST Researchers Earn Presidential Honors

August 3, 2006

The White House has announced that two researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are among the 56 recipients of the 2005...

Workshop Addresses Imaging Technology in Therapeutics

August 3, 2006

Increasingly, medical and pharmaceutical researchers are looking to biomedical imaging as a tool to track disease progress, speed drug discovery and improve...

Road to AC Voltage Standard Leads to Important Junction

July 20, 2006

After 10 years of research, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has unveiled the world's first precision instrument for directly measuring...

'Micro-boxes' of Water Used to Study Single Molecules

July 20, 2006

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated the use of water droplets as minuscule "boxes" for small numbers of...

NIST physicist Jim Bergquist with the mercury ion clock

Mercury Atomic Clock Keeps Time with Record Accuracy

July 14, 2006

BOULDER, COLO.—An experimental atomic clock based on a single mercury atom is now at least five times more precise than the national standard clock based on a...

False-color images of 1, 2, 3, 6, and 12 magnesium ions loaded into NIST's new planar ion trap

New Ion Trap May Lead to Large Quantum Computers

July 6, 2006

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have designed and built a novel electromagnetic trap for ions that could be easily mass...

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