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Metrology

Thermometry metrology

News and Updates

Blog Posts

Stephen Eckel wears dark safety glasses as he peers into the complex CAVS apparatus in a darkened lab.

How Low Can Temperature Go? Lord Kelvin and the Science of Absolute Zero

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Zach Levine in his kitchen wearing an orange and white striped apron and chef's hat

Minding your Peas and Carrots: Please Try This at Home

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an opalescent close up of Roman glass. There is a clear semi-circular fracture in the center of the piece.

Ancient Roman Glass, Perceiving Color in LED, 3D Mapping for Public Safety, SRMs in Space: A Sample of Stories From the Social Sphere

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Projects and Programs

cold atom thermometer (CAT) experiment

Atomic Thermometers

Ongoing
Approach 1 Compact Blackbody Radiation Atomic Sensor (CoBRAS) The Compact Blackbody Radiation Atomic Sensor (CoBRAS) uses a thermal vapor of atoms excited by a single laser to detect BBR. From the optically excited state, atomic population is transferred to other, nearby excited states by a...
thin-film payload

Cryogenics

Ongoing
Almost all the devices developed by the Quantum Sensors Group work at temperatures below liquid helium. Sometimes, it is necessary to develop specialized cryogenics to test the devices, or to facilitate their dissemination to outside users. The cryogenics team also aims to make refrigerators more...
Illustration of Doppler thermometry

Deployable Doppler Thermometry

Ongoing
Accurate temperature measurements are essential to many industrial processes, including petrochemical or pharmaceutical production and nuclear power generation. Typical process control thermometers, such as resistance temperature detectors, are known to drift over time and degrade when subject to...
prototype system

Fixed Point Development: Non-Metals

Ongoing
A fixed point is a reproducible reference temperature, usually either melting of freezing of a pure substance, that allows a standardized interpolation scheme for the purposes of temperature scale dissemination. Most SPRTs are long-stem designs that require immersion-type fixed points incorporating...

Publications

A study of the position-dependent response of thermal kinetic inductance detectors through the use of cryogenic beam steering

Author(s)
Ian Fogarty Florang, Jonathan Dean, Joseph Fowler, Tom-Erik Haugen, Shannon Hoogerheide, Daniel Jardin, Hans Mumm, Nathan Nakamura, Matthew Natale, Galen O'Neil, Nathan Ortiz, Jeremy Paster, Thomas Rao, Avirup Roy, Daniel Swetz, Joel Ullom, Michael Vissers, Paul Szypryt
There are a number of considerations when designing a low-temperature detector for the best possible energy resolution. One that has been particularly...

Chirped magneto-optical trap of molybdenum

Author(s)
Sai Naga Manoj Paladugu, Nickolas Pilgram, Stephen Eckel, Eric Norrgard
We have directly loaded a cryogenic beam of molybdenum atoms into a magneto-optical trap. By chirping the detuning of the trapping lasers, we were able to...

Tools and Instruments

Awards

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