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Physics

Time & frequency

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JILA’s 3-D Quantum Gas Atomic Clock Offers New Dimensions in Measurement

October 5, 2017

JILA physicists have created an entirely new design for an atomic clock, in which strontium atoms are packed into a tiny three-dimensional (3-D) cube at 1,000...

scanning electron micrograph of a single phononic-crystal cell

New Design Lets Micro-Clock Resonators Ring Like a Bell

August 30, 2017

You can’t hear most of them, but the world is running on different kinds of mechanical oscillations. For example, inside the average electronic wristwatch is a...

1st North American Conference on Trapped Ions

March 20, 2017

The Ion Storage group at NIST Boulder will be holding a new Ion Trap Conference at our laboratory. The conference will be similar in scope and aims to the...

NIST Debuts Dual Atomic Clock — and a New Stability Record

November 28, 2016

What could be better than a world-leading atomic clock? Two clocks in one. Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have combined...

Screenshot of an animation of a superradiant laser

JILA’s Superradiant Laser May One Day Boost Atomic Clocks and ‘Rulers’ for Space

October 14, 2016

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...

NIST and Navy Tests Suggest Telecom Networks Could Back Up GPS Time Signals

September 8, 2016

Precision time signals sent through the Global Positioning System (GPS) synchronize cellphone calls, time-stamp financial transactions, and support safe travel...

NIST's compact gyroscope measures rotation by analyzing patterns of interfering matter waves in an expanding cloud of atoms transitioning between two energy states.

NIST's Compact Gyroscope May Turn Heads

August 23, 2016

Shrink rays may exist only in science fiction, but similar effects are at work in the real world at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)...

Optical Clocks Synched to Femtoseconds -- Through the Air

April 21, 2016

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...

NIST's Internet Time Service Serves the World

March 8, 2016

The Internet Time Service operated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) serves much of the Earth, with customers from around the globe...

Today, Pause for a Second

June 30, 2015

For the great majority of human history, the earth's rotation—the apparent motion of the sun and stars across the sky—kept time far more precisely than any...

40th Time and Frequency Seminar Serves Industry, Government, Academe

June 23, 2015

About 40 participants from industry, US government agencies and academia participated in the 40th Annual Time and Frequency Metrology Seminar at NIST Boulder...

The League of SI Superheroes is Running Out of Time!

May 29, 2015

The League of SI Superheroes is back! Working from their not-terribly-secret HQ at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the cartoon heroes...

Getting Better All the Time: JILA Strontium Atomic Clock Sets New Records

April 21, 2015

In another advance at the far frontiers of timekeeping by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers, the latest modification of a record...

NIST Enables Precision Time-stamping of Financial Transactions

December 10, 2014

NASDAQ, a leading stock exchange for technology markets, has announced the launch of a precision time-stamping service for tens of billions of dollars of...

Tiny Magnetic Sensor Deemed Attractive

November 24, 2014

Ultra-sensitive magnetic sensor technology pioneered at PML may soon be commercialized for a host of applications from detection of unexploded bombs and...

'Comb on a Chip' Powers New NIST/Caltech Atomic Clock Design

July 22, 2014

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have demonstrated a new design for...

NIST physicists Steve Jefferts and Tom Heavner with the NIST-F2 cesium fountain atommic clock

NIST Launches a New U.S. Time Standard: NIST-F2 Atomic Clock

April 3, 2014

NIST-F2 Atomic Clock News Briefing: Opening Statement by Tom O'Brian, Chief, Time and Frequency Division Opening Statement by Steve Jefferts, NIST Project...

NIST-F2 Atomic Clock Webinar

April 3, 2014

On April 3, 2014, NIST hosted a news briefing on the NIST-F2 Atomic Clock. << Back to the press release. <

JILA Strontium Atomic Clock Sets New Records in Both Precision and Stability

January 22, 2014

Heralding a new age of terrific timekeeping, a research group led by a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) physicist has unveiled an...

NIST's New Compact Atomic Clock Design Uses Cold Atoms to Boost Precision

November 5, 2013

Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a compact atomic clock design that relies on cold rubidium atoms...

NIST Ytterbium Atomic Clocks Set Record for Stability

August 22, 2013

A pair of experimental atomic clocks based on ytterbium atoms at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has set a new record for stability...

JILA Researchers Discover Atomic Clock Can Simulate Quantum Magnetism

August 8, 2013

Researchers at JILA have for the first time used an atomic clock as a quantum simulator, mimicking the behavior of a different, more complex quantum system...

NIST Shows How to Make a Compact Frequency Comb in Minutes

July 11, 2013

Laser frequency combs—high-precision tools for measuring different colors of light in an ever-growing range of applications such as advanced atomic clocks...

Time to Celebrate: NIST Radio Station WWVB Logs 50 Years of Innovation

June 25, 2013

Fifty years ago on July 5, 1963, a modest radio station in Fort Collins, Colo., officially went on the airwaves—a landmark event for U.S. industry and the...

NIST Demonstrates Transfer of Ultraprecise Time Signals over a Wireless Optical Channel

April 30, 2013

By bouncing eye-safe laser pulses off a mirror on a hillside, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have transferred...

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