Optical physics

News and Updates

Bringing Atoms to a Standstill: NIST Miniaturizes Laser Cooling

January 21, 2021

It’s cool to be small. Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have miniaturized the optical components required to cool atoms

A novel, low-cost method detects nanoscale contaminants during manufacture of semiconductor devices

October 19, 2020

As computer chips and other electronic devices continue to shrink in size, they become ever more sensitive to contamination. However, detecting the nanoscale

What Laser Color Do You Like?

October 13, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have developed a microchip technology that can convert

Projects and Programs

Optical and Optoelectronic Materials Characterization

This project aims to develop rigorous measurements and methodology needed for determining optical and electrical properties of advanced materials that might be

Diffuse Optical Properties of Materials

SOSI (Single integrating sphere Optical Scattering Instrument) is a new facility for measuring the hemispherical reflectance and transmittance of materials

Images shows the electrodes of an ion trap spanning multiple trap zones. Electrodes are labelled: load zone, rf electrode and experiment zone

Quantum Information and Quantum-Limited Metrology

The coherent control of quantum-mechanical systems holds promise for revolutionizing technologies including computing, simulation, secure communication and

Designing the Nanoworld: Nanostructure, Nanodevices, and Nano-optics

Nano and atomic scale theory of the electronic, optical and mechanical properties of ultrasmall structures, such as semiconductor quantum dots and dopants in Si

Publications

Characterization of waveguide-integrated single-photon detectors using integratedphotonic structures

February 18, 2021

Author(s)

Sonia M. Buckley, Alexander N. Tait, Jeffrey T. Chiles, Adam N. McCaughan, Saeed Khan, Richard Mirin, Sae Woo Nam, Jeffrey M. Shainline

We show several techniques for using integrated-photonic waveguide structures to simultaneously characterize multiple waveguide-integrated superconducting

Eliminating the Middleman: Ultraviolet Scale Realization using a Laser-Driven Plasma Light Source

February 17, 2021

Author(s)

Uwe Arp, Edward W. Hagley, Robert Vest

After we replaced the argon mini-arc with a laser-driven light source in the Ultraviolet Spectral Comparator Facility at NIST, we realized that the optical

Electro-optic frequency combs for rapid interrogation in cavity optomechanics

January 29, 2021

Author(s)

David Long, Benjamin J. Reschovsky, Feng Zhou, Yiliang Bao, Thomas W. LeBrun, Jason J. Gorman

Electro-optic frequency combs were employed to rapidly interrogate an optomechanical sensor, demonstrating spectral resolution substantially exceeding that

X-Ray Computed Tomography using Partially Coherent Fresnel Diffraction with Application to an Optical Fiber

January 18, 2021

Author(s)

Zachary H. Levine, Edward Garboczi, Adele Peskin, Axel A. Ekman, Elisabeth Mansfield, Jason Holm

An algorithm for partially coherent x-ray computed tomography including Fresnel diffraction is developed and applied to an optical fiber. The computing time is

Software

HolograFREE

An electron hologram is a fringe modulated image containing the amplitude and phase information of an electron transparent object. The HolograFREE routines

Custom Lifetime Imaging Platform (CLIP)

CLIP is an analysis program for fluorescence lifetime images. It provides the user with the ability to fit or calculate the phasor plots for lifetime decays

Modeled integrated scatter tool (MIST)

The MIST program has been developed to provide users with a general application to model an integrated scattering system. The program performs an integration of

SCATMECH: Polarized light scattering C++ class library

SCATMECH is an object-oriented C++ class library developed to distribute models for light scattering applications. Included in the library are models for

Tools and Instruments

Ultraviolet Spectral Power Responsivity Scale Realization

The NIST spectral power responsivity scale is based on cryogenic electrical substitution radiometers (ESRs) , which are considered the highest accuracy primary

Beamline 5: New electron beam imaging system

Beamline 5 of the Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility is a diagnostics end-station used to determine the transverse size of the stored electron beam. The

Beamline 10: Synchrotron radiation-based Fourier-transform infrared spectromicroscopy

At beamline 10 a new experimental end-station for synchrotron radiation-based Fourier-transform infrared spectromicroscopy is under development. Currently the

Transfer spectrophotometer

A Perkin-Elmer Lambda 1050 spectrophotometer is used to complement the reference reflectance and transmittance instruments. It performs this function by

Awards

HALO Takes Runner-Up in OPN Photo Contest

The Optical Society of America's Optics and Photonics News holds an annual contest for reader submissions.

2020 Rising Stars of Light certificate for Amit Agrawal

2020 Rising Stars of Light Final Winners - Amit Agrawal

Rising Stars of Light, initiated by Light: Science & Applications, is a worldwide campaign for the most shining young scientists in optics...