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.
In an effort to solve several fundamental mysteries about the cosmos, physicists have been searching for more than two decades for a proposed elementary...
Neutrinos are the lightest elementary particles in the universe. But exactly how much do they weigh? For three decades, physicists have sought answers to this...
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed one of the first all-in-one instruments for realizing the most up-to...
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have taken a crucial step forward in building a large-scale quantum communications...
Imaging antique coins with beams of low-energy neutrons, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have...
Using an electron beam to image the tiniest of defects and patterns on microchips, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) has long been a mainstay of the...
In a physics first, a team including scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has created a way to make beams of neutrons...
“Energy is eternal delight.” --William Blake Snuggling with her parents and brother while watching one of her favorite TV programs, Nicole Yunger Halpern was...
Researchers have demonstrated that a strange type of quantum particle called the anyon, believed to exist in only two dimensions, can also be created in one...
It’s hard enough to track the interactions of even a handful of quantum particles, but physicist Alexey Gorshkov has taken on an even more daunting task. He...
Sensors capable of detecting individual photons of visible light have become essential for applications ranging from imaging faint galaxies to quantum computing...
Qubits, the fundamental unit of quantum information, form the building blocks of quantum computers. Because qubits are not limited to the two states, “0” and “1...
The clock is the latest demonstration that a much more precise definition of the official second is possible and that new applications of clocks are feasible.
Microcombs – chip-scale devices that generate and measure frequencies of light with exquisite accuracy – have transformed timekeeping and boosted optical...
By modifying a refrigerator commonly used in both research and industry, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have...
When NIST scientist Tasshi Dennis first encountered quantum physics as a student, he was skeptical it would ever amount to any practical applications. Little...
For NIST physicist Julia Scherschligt, the most exciting thing about quantum is seeing the real-world applications of this science. Julia leads a group that is...
Frequency combs — specialized lasers that act like rulers to measure light — are now being brought down to a low-power, chip-scale form. NIST researchers David...
Devices that capture the brilliant light from millions of quantum dots, including chip-scale lasers and optical amplifiers, have made the transition from...