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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
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made one of the highest-performance cameras ever composed of sensors that count
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have developed an optical switch that routes light from one
JILA physicists and collaborators have demonstrated the first next-generation “time scale” — a system that incorporates data from multiple atomic clocks to
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and collaborators have demonstrated a compact frequency-comb apparatus that rapidly
Imagine being able to shape a pulse of light in any conceivable manner—compressing it, stretching it, splitting it in two, changing its intensity or altering
Just as a journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step, the deformations and fractures that cause catastrophic failure in materials begin with a few
Some of the most advanced communication systems now under development rely on the properties of quantum science to store and transport information. However
The hunt for Earth-like planets, and perhaps extraterrestrial life, just got more precise, thanks to record-setting starlight measurements made possible by a
By using light waves instead of electric current to transmit data, photonic chips—circuits for light—have advanced fundamental research in many areas from
Physicists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used common electronics to build a laser that pulses 100 times more often than
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have used a laser detection and ranging (LADAR) system to image three-dimensional (3D)
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made a silicon chip that distributes optical signals precisely across a miniature
Manipulating light in a variety of ways—shrinking its wavelength and allowing it to travel freely in one direction while stopping it cold in another--hyperbolic
Over the last two decades, scientists have discovered that the optical microscope can be used to detect, track and image objects much smaller than their
In an advance that could shrink many measurement technologies, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and partners have
Trapping light with an optical version of a whispering gallery, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a
Imagine a single particle, only one-tenth the diameter of a bacterium, whose miniscule jiggles induce sustained vibrations in an entire mechanical device some
Accurately detecting, locating and quantifying leaks of methane, the main component of natural gas and a major fuel source worldwide, is critically important
February 17, 2018 marked the culmination of ten years of planning and construction for NIST’s NSLS-II Spectroscopy Beamline Suite, with first light at the Soft
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has filed a provisional patent application for a microflow measurement system, about the size of a
High-power, ultrafast pulsed lasers increasingly supply light for biomedical applications and imaging, materials processing, industrial micromachining and more
Ask most folks what they would need to find planets orbiting distant stars, and very few will list a bottle of iodine.
Yet that element plays a vital role in
Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed the first miniature laser in which the light is guided along the floor of