Optical Technology Programs & Projects

The NIST Thermodynamic Metrology Group maintains and develops national standards of temperature (in the range 0.65 K to 1235 K), and supports … more

LUnar Spectral Irradiance and radiance (LUSI) is a proposed suite of instruments to radiometrically characterize the Moon for use as an on-orbit … more

Optical frequency conversion, in which the color of light is changed, is a process that has numerous applications in physics and technology. For … more

In support of defense programs in remote sensing, NIST maintains the scale for infrared radiant flux by using the Absolute Cryogenic radiometer … more

The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) requires all test facilities to have their blackbodies calibrated at the NIST Low background infrared (LBIR) … more

We have developed several portable radiometers to transfer the primary detector-based scales for optical power, radiance, and irradiance in the … more

Detecting climate change with remote sensing instruments, providing state-of-the-art surveillance imagery for security and defense, or getting the … more

The overarching objective of this project is reliably calculating the bulk optical properties of materials, such as complex index of refraction, … more

With the rise of new, energy-efficient solid-state lighting (SSL) systems has come the need for new performance metrics and measurement methods to … more

The purpose of photometry is to measure light in a way that takes the sensitivity of human visual system into account. While radiometry measures … more

The optical properties of cryogenic water ices in the vacuum-ultraviolet spectral range are studied.

Bilateral comparison of synchrotron radiation-based deuterium lamp calibrations between the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt PTB and NIST. more

Orbital ultraviolet and extreme-ultraviolet spectrometers are calibrated on beamline 2, taking advantage of the calculability of synchrotron … more

Calibrations of the The Extreme ultraviolet/X-ray Irradiance Sensor (EXIS), which will be installed on the Geostationary Operations Environment … more

Photomultiplier tube (PMT) analysis with respect to PMT sensitivity and long-term stability using synchrotron radiation.