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Projects/Programs

Displaying 26 - 50 of 54

Infrared optical properties of materials and components

Ongoing
Our overall program can be summarized by the following 6 key elements: Provide a traceability path to national scales for infrared optical properties to the infrared optical properties community through, NIST Calibration Service 38075S, Standard Reference Materials, cooperative research and

Label-free imaging of cells and their extracellular matrix by SPR imaging

Ongoing
Cellular remodeling of their neighboring environment, extracellular matrix (ECM), is an important biological process from development biology, to wound healing, to diseases and cancers – this is a challenging process to measure and quantify. Surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRI) has been

Laser Power and Energy Meter Calibrations

Ongoing
We serve Industry, DoD, and research institutions by calibrating instruments used to measure the power or energy emitted by a laser, or single photon source. From Single Photons to Kilowatts, Longwave Infrared to Deep Ultraviolet, Free-space and Fiber, we can calibrate your instruments. The chart to

Light-matter interactions in Semiconductor Nanostructures

Ongoing
We investigate the interaction of light with semiconductor-based nanostructures. We extend concepts of entanglement and coherence in atomic physics to our solid-state systems. Our devices are based on semiconductors, like GaAs. We use InAs quantum dots (QDs) in GaAs as artificial atoms; they have

Measuring Light-Matter Interactions in Chip-Based Optical Cavities

Ongoing
A "single emitter" is a structure that exhibits a transition from a high energy state to a low energy state, thereby generating a photon, or light emission. A variety of solid-state single emitters have been discovered or manufactured. One example is a quantum dot, a nanometer-scale structure that

Metrology for extreme ultraviolet lithography

Ongoing
Patterning with light 13 nm brings a host a new challenges Light at 13 nm is well within the vacuum ultraviolet, where radiation is strongly absorbed by all materials. This requires that the technology take place in vacuum and rely on mirrors rather than lenses. Moreover generating sufficient

Micro- and nano-optomechanical systems

Ongoing
Our primary current research direction involves the use of fabricated devices with sub-wavelength periodicity (photonic crystals) as optomechanical elements. Such structures enable a rich variety of devices, including mirrors, polarizers, and filters, in a configuration that couples naturally to

Nano-biophotonics for molecular imaging

Ongoing
Nano-biophotonics consists of four broad areas: molecular bioimaging; nano-biosensors; multiplexed bioassays ; and nanotechnology-based medical practices for diagnosis and therapy. Success in these areas is challenged by the underlying complexity of biological systems. Major levels of complexity and

Nanoplasmonics and Three-Dimensional Plasmonic Metamaterials

Ongoing
Plasmonic materials are composed of metals and insulators that are ordered in geometric arrangements with dimensions that are fractions of the wavelength of light. Research groups are experimenting with a variety of geometric approaches, but all aim to exploit surface plasmons, which are light

Ocean Color

Ongoing
The primary reference instrument for the United States and most international ocean-color sensors is the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY), an automated radiometric system operated by NOAA and deployed about 20 km offshore from Lanai, Hawaii, where the atmospheric and water conditions support utilizing

Optical grating scatterometry

Ongoing
In the past few years, scatterometry has emerged as a method for performing linewidth and line profile metrology, especially by the semiconductor industry. The method uses a periodic target containing repetitive lines whose profile, i.e., its width, height, and shape, is to be determined. The

Optical medical imaging

Ongoing
Optical medical imaging technologies proliferate in academic research and yet very few translate into the clinic. Optical techniques have high spatial and spectral resolution, lends itself to portability, and inexpensive relative to conventional imaging modalities such as MRI (Magnetic Resonance

Optical and Optoelectronic Materials Characterization

Ongoing
Today's electronics have reached a point where sheer computation power has combined form and function as the key driver of large consumer markets. The demand for portable and pervasive electronics with greater functionality promises significant changes over the next decades in how society interacts

Optical Polarization Metrology

Ongoing
Electromagnetic waves are transverse. That is, besides propagating energy, they also have polarization represented by the direction of the electric field, which is constrained to lie in the plane perpendicular to the direction of propagation. Light rays can be characterized by a four-element Stokes

Optical scattering from surfaces

Ongoing
Light Scattering Ellipsometry: The polarization of scattered light can often indicate the source of that scattered light. Using Light Scattering Ellipsometry, whereby the polarization of light scattered into directions out of the plane of incidence is measured for a fixed incident polarization

Photonic Dosimetry

Ongoing
With this effort, NIST is responding to industry needs for traceable, measurement solutions that can resolve spatial variations of absorbed dose at the level of individual components on a silicon wafer or bacteria on surgical instruments. Presently, there is only limited traceability to national

Photonic Radiometry

Ongoing
Meeting the needs of the photonics industry and anticipating emerging technologies requires investigation and development of improved measurement methods and instrumentation. This project develops state-of-art, absolute microfabricated thermal detectors with absorber coatings consisting of carbon

Quantum Networking with Trapped Ions

Ongoing
The goal of a quantum network is to establish entanglement as a resource between distant locations. Shared entanglement over long distances may enable distributed quantum computing, quantum-enhanced long-baseline interferometry, the transmission of complex quantum states, or a variety of other

Quantum Physics Theory

Ongoing
The scope of the work ranges from calculations of QED effects in atoms to detailed studies of photon wave functions.

Quantum Radiometry

Ongoing
For quantum applications, it is important to generate quantum states of light and detect them with extremely high efficiency. This project explores the metrology challenges associated with precision measurement of single photon sources and detectors. The classical photonic radiometry techniques used

Reflectance Measurements of Human Skin

Ongoing
Investigations of the optical properties of human skin have largely been limited to the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum, whereas many applications require high-quality reflectance data in the near infrared and short-wave infrared. Further, the complex and dynamic nature of skin results

SDO/EVE/ESP Calibration

Ongoing
The SDO satellite is the first mission in NASA's Living With a Star program, which aims to understand the connections between the Sun and Earth. In addition to the light and heat with which we are familiar, the Sun produces x-ray radiation, extreme ultraviolet light, and the solar wind which

Spectral Reflectance and Transmittance

Ongoing
NIST serves as the nation's primary source for spectral reflectance and transmittance measurements from 250 nm to 2500 nm. Our reflectance and transmittance measurements support the measurement infrastructure of communities involved in optics, photonics, color technology, instrument manufacturing