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Physical Measurement Laboratory

News and Updates

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Topic Area

Roll-Up TVs and Bendable Smartphones: Toward More Choices for Flexible Electronic Materials

March 6, 2020

Have you heard of foldable smartphones? How about the flexible television screen that rolls up into a box? Or the ultrathin “wallpaper” TVs that are just

Getting a closer look at living cells and batteries: a little bit of graphene goes a long way

March 6, 2020

Researchers at NIST have devised a way to eliminate a long-standing problem affecting our understanding of both living cells and batteries. When a solid and an

How Low Can You Go? Lower Than Ever Before

February 26, 2020

Silicon, the best-known semiconductor, is ubiquitous in electronic devices including cellphones, laptops and the electronics in cars. Now, researchers at the

Spotlight: Addressing the Minuscule Measuring Needs of the Nanotechnology Community

February 21, 2020

A tooth? An angel? A strong man? Instead of seeing patterns in clouds, our scientists go to the microscope! NIST’s Ravi Attota uses a simple optical microscope

A Spin Wave Detective Story: NIST Researchers Verify Surprising Behavior in a 2D Magnet

February 18, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a surprising feature in two-dimensional (2D) magnets, a new class of

Spotlight: Radiometric Dating

February 14, 2020

Dating can be complicated. Our team uses this instrument — a live-timed anticoincidence counter — to figure the decay rate of an isotope, which we can then use

Opposite sides of a quartz crystal resonator

Universe in the Balance

February 12, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have found a way to link measurements made by a device integral to microchip

STM image of electrons in two coupled quantum dots

What a Pair! Coupled Quantum Dots May Offer a New Way to Store Quantum Information

January 29, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have for the first time created and imaged a novel pair of quantum

Black and white micrograph of tiny cubes clustered together.

Spotlight: Polymer Microparticle Molds

January 26, 2020

Forget ice cube trays … we have microscopic molds for any shape we want. Scientists at NIST can now pour a polymer liquid into a template to make exact shapes —

Design in dark and light blue with a circular pattern surrounded by a square.

Spotlight: Silicon-28 in Quantum Computers

January 11, 2020

Silicon, found everywhere from the brick in your fireplace to the sand between your toes at the beach, also forms the basis of microchips in conventional

A man in safety glasses stands near a rack of equipment in a darkened lab.

Counting Photons Is Now Routine Enough to Need Standards

December 20, 2019

Since the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) built its first superconducting devices for counting photons (the smallest units of light) in

NIST Study Suggests Universal Method for Measuring Light Power

December 20, 2019

Always on the lookout for better ways to measure all kinds of things, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have published a

A New Playbook for Interference

December 17, 2019

Particles can sometimes act like waves, and photons (particles of light) are no exception. Just as waves create an interference pattern, like ripples on a pond

Tracking Lab-Grown Tissue With Light

December 12, 2019

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

Bullet fragment is illuminated under microscope lens.

Kennedy Assassination Bullets Preserved in Digital Form

December 5, 2019

In the palm of his hand, Thomas Brian Renegar held two small metal objects that had changed the course of history. Twisted pieces of copper and lead, they were

Gray cylinder two inches in diameter, held in gloved fingers

Spotlight: Astro-Etalon

November 25, 2019

A small role can make an astronomical impact, as is the case for a tiny NIST-built piece of a new planet-hunting project from NASA and the National Science

Square checkerboard with 32 squares on each side surrounded by sunbeam-like lines emanating out from around the board.

NIST’s Light-Sensing Camera May Help Detect Extraterrestrial Life, Dark Matter

November 19, 2019

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made one of the highest-performance cameras ever composed of sensors that count

Fly Me (Partway) to the Moon

November 19, 2019

Last week, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the United

A woman and a man stand in front of scientific equipment, including a large green tank.

Spotlight: Gillian Nave and Jacob Ward

November 18, 2019

STEM is STELLAR! In November 2019, NIST’s Gillian Nave and Jacob Ward brought celebrations of Mercury’s transit (the point where Mercury passes between the

What a Switch! NIST-Led Team Develops Tiny Low-Energy Device to Rapidly Reroute Light in Computer Chips

November 14, 2019

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have developed an optical switch that routes light from one

The Half of It: Argentinian Metrologist Builds NIST-Inspired ‘Half-Angle’ Measurement System

October 30, 2019

When Jorge Campbell, an engineer from Argentina’s National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI), visited the National Institute of Standards and Technology

A twist and a spin: harnessing two quantum properties transforms a neutron beam into a powerful probe of material structure

October 29, 2019

By cleverly manipulating two properties of a neutron beam, NIST scientists and their collaborators have created a powerful probe of materials that have complex