U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

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.

Physical Measurement Laboratory

Quantum Electromagnetics Division

Our mission is to provide the metrological foundation for strategic, emerging electronic, magnetic, and photonic technologies by developing high-precision measurement devices, systems, standards, and methodologies and disseminating them to address national needs.

Banner image with floating telescope in space and large Purple wavy line in the middle.
Measuring The Cosmos

We interact and collaborate with stakeholders in industry, academia, and other government agencies to ensure that we are responsive to their measurement needs in quantum electrical standards; advanced materials analysis using X-ray sensor arrays; superconducting electronics and nanomagnetics for high-speed, energy-efficient, future generation computing; and quantitative medical diagnostic imaging.

News and Updates

Projects and Programs

Micrographs of kinetic inductance-based parametric amplifier

Amplifiers

Ongoing
To process information from quantum circuits and systems, it is important to have amplifiers with wide bandwidth, high dynamic range, and extremely low noise
Boulder Cryogenic Quantum Testbed

Boulder Cryogenic Quantum Testbed

Ongoing
The Boulder Cryogenic Quantum Testbed (BCQT) Project implements, develops and openly disseminates standard protocols to reproducibly measure the performance
thin-film payload

Cryogenics

Ongoing
Low temperatures suppress noise and make quantum phenomena accessible. As a result, cryogenics play a crucial role in precision measurements.

Awards

Patents

Compact Low-power Cryo-Cooling Systems For Superconducting Elements

NIST Inventors
Joel Ullom , Sae Woo Nam and Vincent Kotsubo
A compact, low power cryo-cooler for cryogenic systems capable of cooling gas to at least as low as 2.5 K. The cryo-cooler has a room temperature compressor followed by filtration. Within the cryostat, four counterflow heat exchangers precool the incoming high-pressure gas using the outflowing low

PHOTOACOUSTIC PHOTON METER AND PROCESS FOR MEASURING PHOTON FLUENCE

NIST Inventors
Kimberly A. Briggman , Chris Yung , Jeeseong C. Hwang and John H. Lehman
A photoacoustic photon meter includes: a photoacoustic generative array including carbon nanotubes disposed in a photoacoustic generating pattern, such that the carbon nanotubes: receive photons comprising optical energy, and produce thermal energy from the optical energy; and a superstratum

Optical Phantom for Producing a Time-Resolved Diffuse Reflectance Spectrum

NIST Inventors
Jeeseong C. Hwang
An optical phantom produces a time-resolved diffuse reflectance spectrum and includes: a light source; a spatial light modulator; and an optical delay line including optical fibers of different length that produce different time-of-flight distributions, such that different time-of-flight

Contacts

Division Chief and Deputy Division Chief

Division Secretary