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Physical Measurement Laboratory / Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division

Photonics and Optomechanics Group

News and Updates

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New Design Lets Micro-Clock Resonators Ring Like a Bell

August 30, 2017

You can’t hear most of them, but the world is running on different kinds of mechanical oscillations. For example, inside the average electronic wristwatch is a

Quantum Thermometer or Optical Refrigerator?

June 22, 2017

In an arranged marriage of optics and mechanics, physicists have created microscopic structural beams that have a variety of powerful uses when light strikes

Turning Back Time: Watching Rust Transform into Iron

April 4, 2017

Using a state-of-the-art microscopy technique, experimenters at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have witnessed a

Measuring Acceleration with Light

March 29, 2017

Most people have never seen an accelerometer -- a device that measures change in velocity -- and wouldn’t know where to look. Yet accelerometers have become

schematic of laser light interacting with a plasmonic gap resonator

NIST Device for Detecting Subatomic-Scale Motion Has Potential Robotics, Homeland Security Applications

December 15, 2016

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new device that measures the motion of super-tiny particles traversing

Drawing of a spiral delay line heater element, designed with the CNST Nanolithography Toolbox software

New Nanoscale Design Software Available Online

October 21, 2016

A recently developed CNST software package that designs difficult-to-draw nanoscale shapes, including spirals, S-bends, and tapered structures is now available

CNST's Nano-fare Draws a Crowd at the Maker Faire

June 21, 2016

At last weekend's National Maker Faire in Washington, D.C., tech-savvy tinkerers, crafters and educators gave the public the chance to interact with a

False-color scanning electron micrograph of a nanophotonic frequency converter

New Nanodevice Shifts Light's Color at Single-Photon Level

April 18, 2016

Converting a single photon from one color, or frequency, to another is an essential tool in quantum communication, which harnesses the subtle correlations

Multilingual Circuit: NIST's "Optomechanical Transducer" Links Sound, Light and Radio Waves

March 28, 2016

Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a "piezo-optomechanical circuit" that converts signals among

Shiny and (Electro)chrome: New Twist on Old Tech Could Bring Living Color at Low Power

February 2, 2016

By marrying state-of-the-art nanometer-scale gratings with a Space Age-era thin-film polymer, researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and

Ringing in a New Way to Measure and Modulate Trapped Light

December 22, 2015

Researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a novel way to noninvasively measure and map how and where

Four images showing circular grating for extracting single photons from a quantum dot

NIST Method for Spotting Quantum Dots Could Help Make High-Performance Nanophotonic Devices

August 10, 2015

Life may be as unpredictable as a box of chocolates, but ideally, you always know what you're going to get from a quantum dot. A quantum dot should produce one

Mind the Gap: Nanoscale Speed Bump Could Regulate Plasmons for High-Speed Data Flow

April 1, 2015

The name sounds like something Marvin the Martian might have built, but the "nanomechanical plasmonic phase modulator" is not a doomsday device. Developed by a

New NIST Metamaterial Gives Light a One-Way Ticket

July 1, 2014

The light-warping structures known as metamaterials have a new trick in their ever-expanding repertoire. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and

Explaining Interactions between Light, Heat, and Charge Carriers in Silicon Photonic Microresonators

March 27, 2014

In an article appearing in the March 28th issue of Physical Review Letters, researchers from Northwestern University working with researchers from the NIST

PML Scientists Develop 3D SEM Metrology for 10 nm Structures

March 21, 2014

PML researchers have devised an idea for determining the three-dimensional shape of features as small as 10 nanometers wide. The model-based method compares

Schematic showing an input signal at 980 nm frequency shifted to the 1550 nm wavelength band through the application of two strong pump lasers.

A Frequency Conversion Interface to the Telecommunications Band Using Nanophotonics

December 17, 2013

Using nanofabricated waveguides in a silicon-based platform, researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) have developed a

Controllable Mode Competition in a Phonon Laser

November 19, 2013

Using a novel realization of a "phonon laser," scientists at PML and the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) have observed and learned to control a process called

The Reins of Casimir: Engineered Nanostructures Could Offer Way to Control Quantum Effect ... Once a Mystery Is Solved

October 22, 2013

You might think that a pair of parallel plates hanging motionless in a vacuum just a fraction of a micrometer away from each other would be like strangers

CNST Physicists Kevin Twedt and Vladimir Aksyuk

NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology Researchers Introduce Blind Students to Nanoscale Science

September 19, 2013

In July 2013, 45 blind and visually impaired high school students from around the country gathered at Towson University for a weeklong event designed to expose

New Nanoscale Imaging Method Finds Application in Plasmonics

July 16, 2013

Researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland have shown how to make nanoscale measurements of

A NIST team has created an ultraviolet (UV) metamaterial formed of alternating nanolayers of silver (green) and titanium dioxide (blue)

The Better to See You With: Scientists Build Record-Setting Metamaterial Flat Lens

May 23, 2013

For the first time, scientists working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a new type of lens that bends and focuses

New Temporal Filtering Technique Improves Solid-State Single Photon Sources

May 8, 2013

An international collaboration led by researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) has demonstrated a novel temporal filtering

PML Scientists Make Better SEM Imaging and Measurements in the Nano Era Possible

March 14, 2013

Since the inception of the scanning electron microscope (SEM), users have encountered the persistent problem of contamination. Cleanliness is required for

New Player in Electron Field Emitter Technology Makes for Better Imaging and Communications

March 5, 2013

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland, College Park, have built a practical, high-efficiency

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