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Projects/Programs

Topic Area
Displaying 76 - 100 of 466

Calibration of Space Weather Observational Instruments at NIST

Ongoing
Space-weather events are naturally occurring phenomena caused by activity on the Sun that affect us here on Earth. Solar storms can impact technology we rely on daily, like e.g. the Global Positioning System (GPS), communication satellites, and electric power grids. Various phenomena that originate

Calibrations: Californium Neutron Irradiation Facility

Ongoing
A high-activity Cf-252 source (~10 10 neutrons/s as of May 2024) is housed in a large (approximately 15 m x 10 m x 10 m high) room with concrete walls, floor, and ceiling (see photograph) at a depth of 10 meters-water-equivalent. In addition, there are two monoenergetic neutron generators for 2.5

Calibrations: Neutron Device Calibrations

Ongoing
The Neutron Physics Group calibrates neutron radiation detectors used for personnel protection and irradiates personnel dosimeters in standard neutron fields. The fields are produced by unmoderated 252Cf and 252Cf moderated with a D 2O sphere (represented by the gray sphere near the center of the

Calibrations: Neutron Source Strength

Ongoing
Calibrations are performed using the manganous sulfate bath technique in which the emission rate of the source to be calibrated is compared to the emission rate of NBS–1, the national standard Ra–Be photo-neutron source. Neutron source calibrations typically have a relative expanded uncertainty ( k

Calibrations: Portable Manganese Sulfate Bath

Ongoing
The Manganese Sulfate Bath uses a sphere of neutron-absorbing material that surrounds a neutron source. The induced radioactivity is a measure of the neutron source strength. Lower intensity sources provide less manganese activation, resulting in a reduced signal over background, and this signal-to

Calibrations: Radioactivity Standard Reference Material Program

Ongoing
NIST radioactivity SRMs represent the national basis for accurate radioactivity measurements. SRMs for radioactivity measurements can typically be classified into three general categories: (1) environment and nuclear power, (2) medicine, and (3) basic and applied research using or involving

Celebrating A Successful 2024 Regional Measurement Assurance Program (RMAP)

Ongoing
Within each region, metrologists from the state laboratories, together with representatives from the various metrology industries, gather each year to network, share experiences, and receive training in a variety of metrology topics. These meetings are unique in that they not only bring together the

Chemical Functionalization and Manipulation of Nano Materials

Ongoing
This project focuses on manipulating nanomaterials, including weakly bonded van der Waals systems, and probing emergent phenomena in these nanoengineered systems to impact technologies such as nanoelectronics, optoelectronics, quantum sensing, and quantum computing. Developing processes to

Chip-scale ultraprecise laser technologies

Ongoing
Lasers with high spectral purity are used in a diverse application space, including coherent high-speed communications, physical sensing, and manipulation of quantum systems. Lab bench scale Fabry-Perot cavities based on sophisticated vibration, thermal, and atmospheric isolation have made possible

CODATA values of the fundamental physical constants

Ongoing
CODATA recommended values of the constants Database of references for data on the constants Publications: Reviews of Modern Physics ( 1998) ( 2002) ( 2006) ( 2010) ( 2014) Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data ( 1998) ( 2006) ( 2010) Resource Letter FC-1: The physics of fundamental

Cold Core Technology Platform

Ongoing
Cold atoms can be useful sensors for a host of different phenomena including inertial forces like acceleration and rotation, gravity, magnetic fields, vacuum and time. However, most of these applications are still confined to the laboratory. Building robust, field-deployable quantum sensors made

Color and appearance

Ongoing
The quality of an object—be it fruit at the grocery store, clothes in the department store, or a new car on the dealer's lot—is often judged by its color and appearance. Appearance greatly influences a customer's judgement of the quality and acceptability of manufactured products, as yearly there is

Compact Cold Atom Instruments

Ongoing
Chip-scale laser cooling This project develops technologies to achieve chip-scale laser cooling, beyond direct miniaturization of existing laboratory techniques. This includes development of the vacuum technology for realizing low power, passively pumped ultra-high vacuum chambers [1,2] and novel

Compact strontium optical clock with integrated photonics

Ongoing
The development of a liter-scale apparatus to produce Sr, would enable highly accurate, transportable optical clocks based on their ultra-narrow optical transition. However, straightforward miniaturization of the traditional optical infrastructure necessary to implement multi-step laser cooling has

Compact Ultrastable Optical References

Ongoing
At the heart of any stable laser is a reference cavity resonator. By locking a laser’s frequency to a reference cavity mode, the laser inherits the resonator’s stability. These stable lasers can then be used in various sensing and spectroscopy applications, including in optical atomic clocks and

Comparison: Co-60 Absorbed Dose for High-Dose Dosimetry

Completed
The NIST comparison demonstrated the need to know the participant's calibration scheme and dose rates, as well as the inclusion of an additional dose level (1 kGy, in addition to 5 kGy, 15 kGy, and 30 kGy). The rationale for modifying the protocol was based on the recent NIST characterization of a

Comparisons (Archive): International Comparison of Pu-241 Activity

Completed
Quantitation of 241Pu in low-level waste and environmental samples is of interest because 241Pu is a precursor of other transuranium nuclides that have longer half-lives, greater environmental mobility, and greater toxicity. In addition, 241Pu is the most difficult of the plutonium isotopes to

Comparisons (Archive): International Comparison of Tc-99 Activity

Completed
Measurements by NIST on the solution were performed by three methods: viz., liquid scintillation (LS) standardizations (with 3H-standard efficiency tracing); with triple-to-double-coincidence ratio (TDCR) method; and with by 4ηβ(LS)-γ(NaI) live-timed anticoincidence (LTAC) measurements. Impurities