News and Updates

Displaying 1 - 19 of 19

Spotlight: Scientists Can Measure Laser Power Using HALO

January 22, 2026

By measuring laser power, scientists can help improve safety, quality control and performance over time.

A first-ever comparison between National Metrology Institutes in the kW-power regime

March 5, 2025

NIST has continuously positioned itself at the forefront of high-power laser calibrations for over three decades [1]. To better meet needs of the manufacturing...

Sources and Detectors group ensures U. S. Military gas mask performance

February 26, 2025

“To survive and win…we must leverage ingenuity and technology to develop comprehensive solutions” -U. S. Army CBRN capability development update, 2024 CBRN...

Calibration leaders and researchers in the NIST Sources and Detectors Group support U.S. Military Aviation with laser-targeting system calibrations

February 21, 2025

“Air Power alone does not guarantee America’s security, but I believe it best exploits the nation’s greatest asset – our technical skill” -Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg...

3 NIST Researchers Receive Presidential Rank Awards

December 5, 2024

All three were awarded the “Distinguished Rank,” the highest category of Presidential Rank Awards.

Measuring Sunlight from Space, on a Chip

November 4, 2022

For 40 years, people have used space-based sensors to measure the amount of light coming from the Sun, which gives scientists insight into climate change on...

Calibrating the Universe: Behind the Scenes, NIST Scientists Play a Critical Role in Improving Gravitational Wave Measurements

August 2, 2022

Space-time ripples, exploding stars, colliding black holes …. and the National Institute of Standards and Technology? NIST doesn’t exactly come to mind when...

Out of the Shadows: New Imaging Method Reveals Concealed Objects

July 19, 2022

A new way of imaging concealed objects, devised by a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and his colleagues, might take all...

A numbered orange plastic box on a lanyard is shown with a quarter for scale.

NIST’s Low-Cost Radio System Could Help Trace Disease Spread

January 24, 2022

In efforts to limit the spread of disease while preserving privacy, an interdisciplinary research team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology...

Nathan Tomlin wears protective clothes and safety goggles while reaching into a complex-looking scientific device.

Spotlight: Thermal Detectors Among the Stars to Study the Earth’s Climate

April 22, 2021

To understand climate change, scientists need the ability to constantly measure the solar radiation entering and leaving the Earth’s atmosphere. Researchers...

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...

NIST Research Sparks New Insights on Laser Welding

April 30, 2019

On its surface, the work is deceptively simple: Shoot a high-power laser beam onto a piece of metal for a fraction of a second and see what happens. But...

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...

Taking The Heat: New High for NIST’s ‘Light Force’ Laser Power Meter

May 1, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been developing a novel way of measuring laser power. Their device, called the...

Gauging Multi-Kilowatt Laser Power with the Pressure of Light

January 24, 2017

A multi-kilowatt laser beam can cut through steel and melt bricks into glass. Many industries use high-power lasers like these to precisely cut and weld metals...

New Chip-Based Sensor Finds Power in Versatility

April 26, 2016

Whether you're using a landline or cell phone, there's a good chance that the signal spends at least some time traveling over fiber-optic cables. To ensure that...

Transforming Welding with Comprehensive NIST Metrology

February 2, 2016

Welding has been around, in some form, for centuries. Today it enables a large percentage of the U.S. economy,* thanks to its role in the creation of a diverse...

simulation of laser flashes on windshield

Helping the Judicial System Understand Laser Strikes on Aircraft

January 14, 2014

Joshua Hadler and colleagues in PML's Quantum Electronics and Photonics Division have devised a simple, accurate measurement system that can help law...

1000 Calibration Reports . . . And Counting

November 21, 2012

The U.S. Internet – and indeed any communication system that sends information by fiber-optic cable – depends critically on strong, clear signals propagating...

Advanced communications
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