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Nanotechnology

News and Updates

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Zero Field Switching (ZFS) Effect in a Nanomagnetic Device

March 16, 2018

An unexpected phenomenon known as zero field switching (ZFS) could lead to smaller, lower-power memory and computing devices than presently possible. The image...

First Light at NIST’s Spectroscopy Soft and Tender NSLS-II Beamlines

March 14, 2018

February 17, 2018 marked the culmination of ten years of planning and construction for NIST’s NSLS-II Spectroscopy Beamline Suite, with first light at the Soft...

NIST’s Superconducting Synapse May Be Missing Piece for ‘Artificial Brains’

January 26, 2018

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have built a superconducting switch that “learns” like a biological system and could...

CNST Releases Fall Winter 2017 Edition of the CNST News

January 18, 2018

The NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) is pleased to announce the release of the Fall/Winter 2017 edition of the CNST News. This quarterly...

Laboratory Management Web Application Goes Nationwide

January 8, 2018

Making reservations, accessing tools, and maintaining equipment at the CNST’s NanoFab got a lot easier five years ago when the CNST developed a customized...

sphere-shaped particles of different sizes on a nanometer-scale staircase with 7 steps

Atomic Blasting Creates New Devices to Measure Nanoparticles

December 14, 2017

Like sandblasting at the nanometer scale, focused beams of ions ablate hard materials to form intricate three-dimensional patterns. The beams can create tiny...

Illustration showing lines of electrical force around an opening to a cell.

Scientists Channel Graphene to Understand Filtration and Ion Transport into Cells

December 8, 2017

Tiny pores at a cell’s entryway act as miniature bouncers, letting in some electrically charged atoms—ions—but blocking others. Operating as exquisitely...

Two rectangular boxes with oblong shapes in the center of each in red, green and fuscia

Microwave-Based Test Method Can Help Keep 3-D Chip Designers’ Eyes Open

November 28, 2017

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have invented a new approach to testing multilayered, three-dimensional computer chips...

Image showing several lines of a circuit, with an inset showing a device that has both a quantum dot and a network of waveguides

Hybrid Circuit Combines Single-Photon Generator and Efficient Waveguides on One Chip

November 7, 2017

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their collaborators have taken a new step forward in the quest to build quantum...

New Insights on ‘Captured’ Electrons Could Improve Flash Memory

November 7, 2017

An entirely new model of the way electrons are briefly trapped and released in tiny electronic devices suggests that a long-accepted, industry-wide view is just...

Color me Purple, or Red, or Green, or …

November 7, 2017

Imagine a miniature device that suffuses each room in your house with a different hue of the rainbow—purple for the living room, perhaps, blue for the bedroom...

Cavity coating in flat red layer below blue-green light beam

Plasmons in an Open Box Create Miniature Laser

October 12, 2017

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed the first miniature laser in which the light is guided along the floor of...

Atomic-Scale Movies Reveal That Catalyst Nanoparticles Undergo Internal Changes to Forge Carbon Nanotubes

September 20, 2017

Lights, camera, catalysis! Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made some of the first movies of the structural...

Researchers Find New Way to Manipulate Magnetism

September 14, 2017

In a pioneering effort to control, measure and understand magnetism at the atomic level, researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and...

CNST Releases Summer 2017 Edition of the CNST News

September 14, 2017

The NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) is pleased to announce the release of the Summer 2017 edition of the CNST News. This quarterly...

NIST Boulder Microfab Lab Goes 'Nano'

September 12, 2017

The world-class clean room in the NIST Boulder Microfabrication Facility (BMF) has just gotten a bit more crowded – in a good way. Staff members have recently...

Even Better than DNA Origami

September 1, 2017

DNA is the stuff of life, but it is also the stuff of nanotechnology. Because molecules of DNA with complementary chemical structures recognize and bind to one...

Diagram of resistive ram on/off states with moving on/off switch.

With a Gentle Touch, NIST Scientists Push Us Closer to Flash Memory Successor

August 8, 2017

Sometimes a light touch is best: When you're telling a joke or hammering a tiny finishing nail into a wall, a gentle delivery often succeeds most effectively...

Sub-microscopic LEDs Shed New Light on Advanced Materials

July 12, 2017

One of the persistent challenges in 21 st century metrology is the need to measure ever-more-detailed properties of ever-smaller things, from microchip features...

Quantum Thermometer or Optical Refrigerator?

June 22, 2017

In an arranged marriage of optics and mechanics, physicists have created microscopic structural beams that have a variety of powerful uses when light strikes...

Novel Techniques Examine Solar Cells with Nanoscale Precision

June 9, 2017

Using two novel techniques, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have for the first time examined, with nanometer-scale...

Top image is classical orbit. Bottom image: electron with different physical state.

Researchers Develop Magnetic Switch to Turn On and Off a Strange Quantum Property

May 25, 2017

GAITHERSBURG, Md.--When a ballerina pirouettes, twirling a full revolution, she looks just as she did when she started. But for electrons and other subatomic...

No Liquid Helium, But Still Extremely Cool

May 23, 2017

NIST scientists have devised a novel hybrid system for cooling superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors (SNSPD) – essential tools for many kinds of...

diagram of perovskite sample examined by the photothermal indued resonance technique

Unexpected Property May Raise Material’s Prospects as Solar Cell

May 22, 2017

Crystalline materials known as perovskites could become the next superstars of solar cells. Over the past few years, researchers have demonstrated that a...

NIST Invents Fundamental Component for ‘Spintronic’ Computing

April 26, 2017

NIST has been granted a patent for technology that may hasten the advent of a long-awaited new generation of high-performance, low-energy computers....

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