Nuclear physics

News and Updates

Imaging the Elusive Skyrmion

September 25, 2023

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) with colleagues elsewhere have employed neutron imaging and a reconstruction algorithm

New NIST Licensing Opportunity Teems with Potential Applications

July 5, 2023

Max Planck, one of the Twentieth Century’s most eminent physicists, observed, "An experiment is a question that science poses to Nature, and a measurement is

Research on the Rocks: Combining Neutrons and X-Ray Imaging, NIST Scientists Study Meteorites to Explore the Mystery of How Earth Acquired Its Water

November 3, 2022

Each year, hundreds of meteorites — rocky bodies left over from the formation of the solar system — bombard Earth, delivering minerals, metals and water to our

Events

Quantum Matters in Materials Science Workshop

Wed, Feb 21 - Thu, Feb 22 2024

As a part of the JARVIS workshops series, NIST is organizing the 3rd Quantum Matters in Materials Science (QMMS)

Projects and Programs

Security (Archive): Neutron Detector Replacement Program

Completed

The Department of Homeland Security/Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DHS/DNDO) is pursuing a course to transform 3 He alternative technologies into integrated

Fundamental Physics: Experiments with a Precision Neutron Polarimeter

Ongoing

The Neutron Spin Rotation (NSR) collaboration has developed a neutron spin polarimeter that has allowed the precise measurement of spin rotations at a level of

Fundamental Physics: Precision Measurement of the Branching Ratio and Energy Spectrum of Radiative Neutron Decay

Completed

Neutron beta-decay is typically considered as a three-body process, but it is always accompanied by inner-bremsstrahlung soft photons, n → e − + p + ν e + γ

Applied: Methods in Neutron Detection and Spectroscopy

Ongoing

We continue to work improving techniques in fast neutron detection using segmented spectrometers based on the principle of capture-gating. Our approach employs

Publications

Gravimetric deposition of microliter drops with radiometric confirmation

September 9, 2023

Author(s)

Denis E. Bergeron, Richard Essex, Svetlana Nour, Gordon A. Shaw, R. Michael Verkouteren, Ryan P. Fitzgerald

A manual gravimetric dispensing technique is demonstrated using a micropipettor modified for use with removeable microcapillaries. Liquid scintillation sources

Three-Dimensional Neutron Far-Field Tomography of a Bulk Skyrmion Lattice

August 13, 2023

Author(s)

Melissa Henderson, Benjamin Heacock, Markus Bleuel, David Cory, Colin Heikes, Michael G. Huber, Jeffery Krzywon, Olivier Nahman-Lévesque, Graeme Luke, M Pula, Dusan Sarenac, Kirill Zhernenkov, Dmitry Pushin

Magnetic skyrmions are localized non-collinear spin textures, characterized by an integer topo-logical charge. Their nanometric size and topological protection

Proof-of-Principle Experiment for Testing Strong-Field Quantum Electrodynamics with Exotic Atoms: High Precision X-Ray Spectroscopy of Muonic Neon

April 27, 2023

Author(s)

Douglas Bennett, W.Bertrand (Randy) Doriese, Malcolm Durkin, Joseph Fowler, Johnathon Gard, Gene C. Hilton, Kelsey Morgan, Galen O'Neil, Carl D. Reintsema, Dan Schmidt, Daniel Swetz, Joel Ullom, Takuma Okumura

To test the bound-state quantum electrodynamics (BSQED), we have performed high precision x- ray spectroscopy of the 5g→4f and 5f→4d transitions (BSQED

A Preliminary Thermal-hydraulics Analysis for the NIST Neutron Source

November 13, 2022

Author(s)

Idan Baroukh, Anil Gurgen, Joy Shen, Abdullah Weiss

Tools and Instruments

Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectrometer

Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy uses positrons to probe material defects/voids/free volume at the sub-nm scale. The general working principle is

Material Analysis Using Neutron Depth Profiling

Light elements such as helium, lithium, boron, and nitrogen are essential constituents in materials that enable energy technologies; lithium ion batteries