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Projects/Programs

Displaying 76 - 100 of 172

Fundamental Constants in Nature

Ongoing
The Task Group on Fundamental Constants periodically publishes updated evaluations of the fundamental constants of physics and chemistry. These evaluations serve two purposes. First, they provide a self-consistent set of recommended values of the constants for all to use. Second, because they

Fundamental Interaction Mechanisms of Engineered Nanomaterials with DNA

Completed
Intended impact Nanotechnology research has resulted in the rapid creation of engineered nanomaterials with many foreseeable applications in medical imaging/diagnosis and in drug delivery. However, there is a notable scarcity of both acute and chronic human toxicity data for these new materials

Fundamental Physics: Experiments with a Precision Neutron Polarimeter

Ongoing
The NSR neutron polarimeter has limited two separate physical quantities, spin rotation due to parity non-conservation and long-range spin-dependent interactions. Firstly, we completed a successful run of an experiment to study the strong interaction using weak interaction properties of the neutron

Fundamental Physics: Magnetically Trapped Neutron Lifetime Experiment

Completed
A precise value for the neutron lifetime is required for several internal consistency tests of the SM including searches for right-handed currents and tests of the unitarity of the CKM mixing matrix. Measurements of neutron decay coefficients provide information on the vector and axial-vector

GaN Nanowire Growth

Ongoing
Selective epitaxy: We have demonstrated that the diameter and placement of nanowires can be controlled by using silicon nitride (SiNx) masks on top of MBE-grown buffer layers (see figure). With electron beam lithography, several patterns with 3 mm die size that provide over 100,000 controlled

High Resolution Atomic Spectroscopy

Ongoing
For many decades, the Atomic Spectroscopy Group at NIST has measured atomic data of vital use to astronomy and other fields using high resolution spectrometers that are found in few other places in the world. These include a 2-m path difference Fourier transfer (FT)spectrometer, a vacuum ultraviolet

High-Power Laser Applications

Ongoing
Measurement challenges Traditional measurements of laser power or energy involve absorbing the laser light and measuring the resulting temperature increase of the absorber. However, as the power and total energy delivered by these lasers increases, thermal management, absorber size, and response

High-Sensitivity IR Spectroscopy of Proteins

Ongoing
Infrared (IR) absorption spectroscopy has been widely used as a non-invasive, label-free characterization method for the chemical identification and structure of complex biomolecules. Fourier-transform IR (FT-IR) technology is commonly used to characterize proteins and other biological molecules

Hybrid Quantum Optomechanical Systems with Solid-State Artificial Atoms

Ongoing
Quantum Dot – Surface Acoustic Wave Microwave-to-Optical Transducers In this project, we focus on coupling nanoscale acoustic resonators with InAs quantum dot (QD) single photon sources (Fig. 1). At ultra-low temperatures, such as those in a dilution refrigerator, the acoustic resonators act as

Imaging: Advanced Neutron Imaging Facility

Ongoing
Available as a national user facility since 2006, the NIST Neutron Imaging Facility provides users with a unique “plug and play” approach to imaging operating fuel cells and electrolyzers. In 2016, the NIST-NeXT system was first installed, allowing simultaneous neutron/X-ray tomography of complex

Imaging: Neutron Tomography of Hydrogen Storage Bed

Completed
While many techniques exist to measure the volume average of the hydrogen uptake, to date no method exists that can measure the full three-dimensional hydrogen distribution within the storage vessel. In order to address this shortcoming, a prototype hydrogen storage bed has been studied using

Imaging: Toward a Neutron Microscope

Ongoing
The NIST Neutron Microscope The NIST neutron microscope based Wolter optics represents a complete change in the way neutron imaging will be conducted, as the time and spatial resolution achievable with this instrument will approach that early generation X-ray synchrotron beamlines. A collaboration

Index Properties of Optical Materials (0.12 μm – 15 μm)

Ongoing
The real part of the refractive index, its wavelength dispersion, and its temperature dependence are the key parameters for the design of refractive optical elements for optical systems. The demands for continually improved precision of optical instruments has driven a need for increasingly accurate

Industrial: Enhanced X-Ray Imaging

Ongoing
A variety of in-house x-ray sources and detector technologies invite efforts to optimize traditional image quality metrics and the use of algorithms and methods to extract the maximum amount of information available. These results are used to inform x-ray standards development and will drive the

Integrated Near-field Optoelectronic (INFO) Scanning Probe

Ongoing
In a collaboration between the Nanoelectromagnetics Project and the Quantitative Imaging Project, we have fabricated and tested a GaN nanowire mounted on an AFM tip as a near-field scanning microwave microscopy (NSMM ) tip (see Fig. 2(a) below ). A tungsten atomic layer deposition (ALD) coating

Integrated Optical Atomic Devices

Ongoing
The NIST on a Chip project in the Atomic Devices and Instrumentation group is focused on the development of compact, manufacturable, low power, SI-traceable calibration instruments using atomic vapor cells. We anticipate such devices could be broadly used in industrial settings for in-situ

Interdomain Distance Measurements of Monoclonal Antibodies

Ongoing
Through collaboration with researchers at the Institute for Biotechnology and Bioscience Research (IBBR), we have created a library of site-specific spin-labeled and stable isotope-labeled binding partner proteins for the NIST monoclonal antibody (NISTmAb) reference material ( RM8671). Using pulsed

Interferometry: Quantum Error Coding in a 4-Blade Neutron Interferometer

Completed
Single crystal neutron interferometers are extremely sensitive to environmental noise, including vibrations. This sensitivity is a result of slow neutron velocity and the long measurement times. Most neutron interferometers require vibration isolation. Usually, massive systems are employed to damp

Interferometry: Three-Dimensional Visualization of Magnetic Skyrmions

Ongoing
Magnetic Skyrmions are localized regions in a material where the atomic spins exhibit a defect swirling pattern (topological change equal to one). Skyrmions are unique because they behave like tiny, stable particles and require only ultralow current densities to manipulate. This makes them ideal