Atomic / Molecular / Quantum

News and Updates

Table in darkened lab holds wiring and other laser electronics; a circular light source is situated above.

Major Leap for Nuclear Clock Paves Way for Ultraprecise Timekeeping

These clocks could lead to improved timekeeping and navigation, faster internet speeds, and advances in fundamental physics research.

When an ordinary beam of neutrons strikes the team’s silicon grating, the millions of scored lines on the grating convert the neutrons into an Airy beam, whose wavefront travels along a parabolic path. The triangular shapes on the detector match the predicted behavior of an Airy beam, offering evidence of the team’s success.

NIST’s Curved Neutron Beams Could Deliver Benefits Straight to Industry

A Physicist and Steampunk Enthusiast Explores Thermodynamics in the Quantum World

Alejandra Collopy wears safety glasses as she works the lab. She is surrounded by various pieces of equipment and many hanging wires.

Spotlight: Alejandra Collopy and Atomic Clocks

Blog Posts

Alexander Kramida looks up as he sits at his desk in front of a computer screen full of data.

Shedding Light: How NIST’s Light Database Helps Bring You Computer Chips, Welded Steel and More

Illustration shows a lottery ball machine: a clear plastic sphere on a stand, half-filled with colorful numbered balls.

Pirouetting Molecules Can Help Us Learn About the History of the Universe

A researcher wearing a lab coat uses tongs to place a silvery sphere into a large scientific device as another researcher looks on.

One of the World’s Roundest Objects Is Helping to Build a Better Mass Measurement

Projects and Programs

Atomic Thermometers

Ongoing

Approach 1 Compact Blackbody Radiation Atomic Sensor (CoBRAS) The Compact Blackbody Radiation Atomic Sensor (CoBRAS) uses a thermal vapor of atoms excited by a single laser to detect BBR. From the optically excited state, atomic population is transferred to other, nearby excited states by a

Platform for Realizing Integrated Molecule Experiments (PRIME)

Ongoing

Blackbodies realize a clear relationship between radiated power and temperature through Planck’s law. While a reliable instrument for temperature and power calibrations, blackbodies are afflicted with a plethora of systematics (e.g., non-ideal emissivity, propagation loss, temperature gradients

Atomic Spectroscopy Data Center

Ongoing

The Atomic Spectroscopic Data Center at NIST provides the most comprehensive collection of atomic spectroscopy data in the world. We monitor scientific literature and maintain bibliographic databases of all papers containing spectroscopic data. By evaluating and compiling data on energy levels

Evolution of Flat-histogram Monte Carlo Simulation

NIST Standard Reference Simulation Website

Ongoing

Molecular simulations, in particular Monte Carlo Molecular Simulation and Molecular Dynamics Simulation, are methods for computing the properties of some kind of system, for which the intermolecular interactions are specified via mathematical relationships derived from statistical mechanics. Since