An official website of the United States government
Here’s how you know
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
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
What drives cells to live and engines to move? It all comes down to a quantity that scientists call “free energy,” essentially the energy that can be extracted
Over the last two decades, scientists have discovered that the optical microscope can be used to detect, track and image objects much smaller than their
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been developing a novel way of measuring laser power. Their device, called the
In an advance that could shrink many measurement technologies, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and partners have
Accurately detecting, locating and quantifying leaks of methane, the main component of natural gas and a major fuel source worldwide, is critically important
High-power, ultrafast pulsed lasers increasingly supply light for biomedical applications and imaging, materials processing, industrial micromachining and more
Studio photographers may be familiar with the 1,000-watt quartz halogen lamps known as “FELs.” Scientists use them too—specially calibrated ones, at least—to
Ask most folks what they would need to find planets orbiting distant stars, and very few will list a bottle of iodine.
Yet that element plays a vital role in
The “inconstant moon,” as Shakespeare called it in Romeo and Juliet, is more reliable than his pair of star-crossed lovers might have thought. Now researchers
Most people have never seen an accelerometer -- a device that measures change in velocity -- and wouldn’t know where to look. Yet accelerometers have become
Semiconductors are the cornerstone of modern electronics. They’re used in solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), microprocessors in laptops and cell phones
One of the goals of artificial lighting is to make things look natural. White light can make an otherwise appetizing sandwich look like garbage, if the reds
We see the world in reflection: Nearly all the light that enters our eyes has bounced off something first, bringing with it information about the nature of the
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
In 1917, NIST physicists Irwin Priest and Chauncey Peters were drawn into the so-called Butter War, an early 20 th century commercial and political spat between
Throwing a perfect strike in virtual bowling doesn’t require your gaming system to precisely track the position and orientation of your swinging arm. But if you
For the first time in a laboratory setting, NIST scientists have made stop-action x-ray measurements of the way visible light interacts with atoms and molecules
BOULDER, Colo. – JILA physicists have demonstrated a novel laser design based on synchronized emissions of light from the same type of atoms used in advanced
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
NIST researchers have devised a way to synchronize the time of two different clocks – separated by as much as 4 km of open, turbulent air – to within a few
Converting a single photon from one color, or frequency, to another is an essential tool in quantum communication, which harnesses the subtle correlations
By marrying state-of-the-art nanometer-scale gratings with a Space Age-era thin-film polymer, researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and