Skip to main content
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.

Projects/Programs

Displaying 76 - 100 of 156

Macromolecule and Nanoparticle Composition and Architecture

Completed
Bringing new products to market requires measurements for rapid, quantitative assessment of composition and structure. To this end, NIST has developed a series of mass spectrometry-based tools that decrease the time necessary to achieve measurement success while producing more accurate results. The

Magnetic Imaging

Completed
Advanced magnetic devices and storage media will rely on ultra thin ferromagnetic films; since such films are quasi two-dimensional magnets, they can have strong perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA). Optimization of future materials, including improved yields, requires an ability to measure film

Magnetic Materials Metrology

Ongoing
Our aim is to develop the metrology for control and manipulation of magnetic anisotropy in magnetic materials. This includes development of the measurement science for quantification of the magnetic properties (e.g., magnetic anisotropy, magnetic exchange) and the structure-property-processing

Magnetic Nanostructures for post-CMOS Electronics

Completed
We focus primarily on arrays of magnetic nanostructures in order to reveal how defects alter the fundamental physics of magnetization reversal processes in the nanometer regime. We have an integrated approach that consists of four inter-related elements. The first element, film edge metrology

Marciniak Multiaxial Testing

Ongoing
This X-ray system can measure the full 3D stress tensor of the sheet in situ under multiaxial tension. The test is performed by raising the punch to stretch the sheet incrementally, then a hold is placed while the stress measurement is made. This step takes 2-4 minutes depending on the accuracy

Materials Informatics

Ongoing
To develop the need data infrastructure and informatics tools, NIST is focusing on three areas: data curation, data infrastructure, and data access. Data curation efforts include efforts to develop a phase-based materials ontology to ensure that the data is represented in a semantically

Measurement and Prediction of Local Structure

Ongoing
Functional materials enable applications in the computer, data storage, wireless communication, and energy sectors. The properties of many of these systems are critically dependent on deviations of local atomic arrangements from the global average of the crystal. No single measurement technique can

Measurements for Hydrogen Storage Materials

Completed
The evaluation of candidate storage materials is complicated by a lack of readily available methods for the direct measurement of hydrogen content. MML is working together with researchers from NCNR, and PML to provide measurement tools to fill this gap. Prompt Gamma Activation Analysis (PGAA) is a

Measuring Topological Insulator Surface State Properties

Ongoing
A family of TI materials can by synthesized by combining binary compounds of Bismuth (Bi) or Antimony (Sb) with Selenium (Se) and Tellurium (Te) to form Bi 2Se 3, Bi 2Te 3, and Sb 2Te 3 compounds. In these material compounds the spin of the electron has a strong interaction with the motion of the

Membranes for Clean Water

Completed
Impact Access to affordable, clean water is vital to the nation's economic growth and security. Polymer-based membrane separation technologies based on reverse osmosis, forward osmosis and nanofiltration will play an increasingly critical role in the production of clean, safe water. In order to

Metrics for Reactive Wetting in Complex Systems

Completed
From fundamental physical considerations, we have derived a set of partial differential equations describing wetting and spreading. These equations are derived using a variational thermodynamic principle applied to a two-component alloy system with three (vapor, liquid and solid) phases. The method

Metrologies for Non-linear Materials in Impact Mitigation

Ongoing
Overview This project develops fundamental structure-property measurements on model materials and novel material chemistries from quasi-static to dynamic rates. The goal is to foster a materials by design approach for novel energy dissipation and force re-direction mechanisms. Processing-Structure

Metrology for Integration of New Magnetic Materials

Ongoing
Integration of magnetic materials remains a key challenge facing advanced packaging technologies. High power applications require voltage conversion at or near the die, and most practical power converters rely on inductors. Beyond power electronics, integration of magnetic components such as

Metrology of Magnetic Materials

Ongoing
Currently, the bulk of this project is focused on three main pieces: Thermal MagIC: An SI-Traceable Method for 3D Thermal Magnetic Imaging and Control Magnetic Refrigeration Magnetic Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) Thermal MagIC (MAGnetic Imaging and Control) is focused on developing new

Metrology for Nanoimprint Lithography

Completed
Nanoimprint Lithography (NIL) was originally perceived as a versatile, low-cost, and high-resolution patterning alternative for optical lithography in CMOS fabrication. However, it is becoming apparent that NIL has great potential for nanotechnology in general. It is capable of patterning sub-10 nm

Metrology for Nanolithography

Ongoing
Small Angle Scattering techniques are employed to measure, with sub-nm precision, pattern shape, dimensions, and orientation for structures created in periodic arrays. Critical-Dimension Small Angle X-ray Scattering (CD-SAXS) utilizes the variable-angle transmission scattering from a small beam size

Microplastic and Nanoplastic Metrology

Ongoing
The Micro and Nanoplastic (MNP) Metrology Project aims to develop a toolbox of methods for size-based separations from complex matrices, chemical characterization protocols, and test materials necessary to enable quantification of micro- and nano-sized plastic particles, a need articulated by our

Micro-rheometry

Completed
One way to develop small-volume rheology methods that we have used successfully is to start with existing concepts and geometries of rheometry and to then "think small." This approach ensures that we are measuring fundamental materials properties rather than quantities that are experiment and

Microscopy Methods

Completed
Due to projection effects, analytical transmission electron microscopy (AEM) of thinned or sectioned samples has traditionally been limited to essentially two-dimensional imaging and analysis. Current nanometer scale devices are too small and complex for current sectioning capabilities and two

Microsystems for Harsh Environment Testing

Completed
Classically, measurement of the mechanical properties and reliability of bulk-scale materials is performed with macroscopic specimens and methods. Specimen preparation limitations, miniaturized load-frame tooling problems, and inadequate understanding of the roles of specimen size and constraint on

Modeling Dispersion Rheology for Non-Spherical Particles

Completed
The goal of this MGI project is to establish an interactive database, generated by sophisticated modeling, such as dissipative particle dynamics and smooth particle hydrodynamics, to compute the rheological properties of polymer composites, where interaction among inclusions, inclusion particle

Multifunctional 3D Printable Polymer-Metal Composites

Ongoing
Recent advances in additive manufacturing (AM) have positioned metals and polymers as two key materials. Typically, AM of these two materials involves incompatible methods and conditions. The novel multifunctional polymer-metal composites in this project incorporate low-melting alloys with

Multiscale MD-FEM Methodology

Completed
MSED, as a part of the MGI effort within NIST, is developing a multiscale modeling schema, statically coupling finite element modeling (FEM) to atomistic Molecular Dynamics (MD) 1. This methodology allows a far more realistic representation of physical phenomena than that obtained by applying each

Multiscale structure and dynamics in advanced technological materials

Ongoing
New technologies increasingly harness materials phenomena that operate across many length-scales: e.g., in selective gas adsorption, additive manufacturing, new alloy designs, or advanced concretes. To overcome technology barriers, it is no longer sufficient just to characterize the materials