Atomic / Molecular / Quantum

News and Updates

Table in darkened lab holds wiring and other laser electronics; a circular light source is situated above.

Major Leap for Nuclear Clock Paves Way for Ultraprecise Timekeeping

These clocks could lead to improved timekeeping and navigation, faster internet speeds, and advances in fundamental physics research.

NIST Team Uses Neutron Beams to Authenticate Historic Coins and Spot Fakes

diagram of a spherical retarding field analyzer

NIST Study Aims to Improve Utility of the Scanning Electron Microscope

When an ordinary beam of neutrons strikes the team’s silicon grating, the millions of scored lines on the grating convert the neutrons into an Airy beam, whose wavefront travels along a parabolic path. The triangular shapes on the detector match the predicted behavior of an Airy beam, offering evidence of the team’s success.

NIST’s Curved Neutron Beams Could Deliver Benefits Straight to Industry

Blog Posts

Alexander Kramida looks up as he sits at his desk in front of a computer screen full of data.

Shedding Light: How NIST’s Light Database Helps Bring You Computer Chips, Welded Steel and More

Illustration shows a lottery ball machine: a clear plastic sphere on a stand, half-filled with colorful numbered balls.

Pirouetting Molecules Can Help Us Learn About the History of the Universe

A researcher wearing a lab coat uses tongs to place a silvery sphere into a large scientific device as another researcher looks on.

One of the World’s Roundest Objects Is Helping to Build a Better Mass Measurement

Projects and Programs

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

Platform for Realizing Integrated Molecule Experiments (PRIME)

Ongoing

Blackbodies realize a clear relationship between radiated power and temperature through Planck’s law. While a reliable instrument for temperature and power calibrations, blackbodies are afflicted with a plethora of systematics (e.g., non-ideal emissivity, propagation loss, temperature gradients

Reconditioning of the 4.45 MN deadweight machine

Completed

The 4.45 MN DWM has been in use in the NIST Force Laboratory since 1965 and is frequently characterized as the largest deadweight force standard in the world. Thousands of measurements through many force calibrations have been performed over the lifespan of the machine. The machine was the

Electron Beam Ion Trap (EBIT) Facility

Ongoing

The NIST EBIT is a table-top device which can produce matter in excess of ten million degrees Kelvin. At these temperatures, even the heaviest atoms shed most of their electrons. The highly charged ions which result are trapped by a configuration of electric and magnetic fields in an ultrahigh