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Physical Measurement Laboratory / Sensor Science Division

Fundamental Thermodynamics Group

News and Updates

Displaying 1 - 25 of 30
bragg grating

Hooked on Photonics? Math to the Rescue

Photonic thermometers – which measure temperature using light – have been around in optical fiber form for decades. These devices, called fiber Bragg gratings
Stephen Eckel

A Primary Standard for Measuring Vacuum

A novel, quantum-based vacuum gauge system invented by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has passed its first test to be
empty petri dish

Tracking Lab-Grown Tissue With Light

Someday, doctors would like to grow limbs and other body tissue for soldiers who have lost arms in battle, children who need a new heart or liver, and many
NIST vacuum sensor

A New Way to Measure Nearly Nothing

Many semiconductor fabricators and research labs are under increasing pressure from, of all things, vacuum. These facilities need to remove greater amounts of
piston gauge

A Faster Way to Calibrate Piston Gauges

For industry and government labs to ensure their pressure-measurement machines are working correctly, they need a reliable source of pressure. Often, that
Jacob Ricker

Making an Airtight Case for Freedom

President Abraham Lincoln’s first handwritten draft of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, a historic document in the collection of the New York State
Weston Tew

SF6 Shows Promise as Mercury Substitute

Elemental mercury – which is being phased out of commercial thermometers worldwide due to safety concerns – may also be replaced as a temperature reference
portable vacuum standard

New Portable Vacuum Standard

A novel Portable Vacuum Standard (PVS) has been added to the roster of NIST's Standard Reference Instruments (SRI). It is now available for purchase as part of
radiograph of mechanism

Protecting Vacuum Gauges: Patent Pending

PML researchers have applied for a provisional patent on a device to protect expensive "spinning-rotor" high-vacuum gauges – used as transfer standards and