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Optical physics and communications

What a Frequency Comb Can Do

What a Comb Can Do
What a Comb Can Do
By making a simple measurement, the optical frequency comb has changed science. So what can a comb do? A lot—and the possibilities are constantly expanding. Learn more: https://www.nist.gov/topics/physics/optical-frequency-combs

News and Updates

Tiny New Lasers Fill a Long-Standing Gap in the Rainbow of Visible-Light Colors, Opening New Applications

Researchers have created orange, yellow and green lasers tiny enough to fit on a chip.

NIST Researchers Publish Comprehensive Survey on Entanglement Routing in Quantum Networks

NIST Offers New Calibration Service for Wavemeters

From Pandemics to Pedicures: NIST Rebuilds World-Class UV Calibration System

Blog Posts

Reaching for the Stars: My Summer Internship Learning About Spectroscopy in Space and on Earth

The Eye of the Beholder: How Lighting Affects Our Color Perception

What’s a Physicist? My Summer as a Student Intern at NIST

Projects and Programs

Optical and Optoelectronic Materials Characterization

Ongoing
Today's electronics have reached a point where sheer computation power has combined form and function as the key driver of large consumer markets. The demand for portable and pervasive electronics with greater functionality promises significant changes over the next decades in how society interacts

Quantum Physics Theory

Ongoing
The scope of the work ranges from calculations of QED effects in atoms to detailed studies of photon wave functions.

High-Power Laser Applications

Ongoing
Measurement challenges Traditional measurements of laser power or energy involve absorbing the laser light and measuring the resulting temperature increase of the absorber. However, as the power and total energy delivered by these lasers increases, thermal management, absorber size, and response

Software

HolograFREE

An electron hologram is a fringe modulated image containing the amplitude and phase information of an electron transparent object. The HolograFREE routines

Modeled integrated scatter tool (MIST)

The MIST program has been developed to provide users with a general application to model an integrated scattering system. The program performs an integration of

Tools and Instruments

Awards