National Institute of Standards and Technology (DOC)
Spray-on coating combines carbon nanotubes with ceramic
April 17, 2013 2:55 pm | News | Comments
Researchers from NIST and Kansas State University have demonstrated a spray-on mixture of carbon nanotubes and ceramic that has unprecedented ability to resist damage while absorbing laser light. The new material improves on NIST's earlier version of a spray-on nanotube coating for optical power detectors and has already attracted industry interest.
Temporal filtering technique improves solid-state single photon sources
May 9, 2013 3:21 pm | News | Comments
An international collaboration led by researchers at NIST has demonstrated a novel...
New NIST measurement tool is on target for MEMS industry
May 3, 2013 9:19 am | News | Comments
As markets for miniature, hybrid machines known as MEMS grow and diversify, NIST has...
Experts propose research priorities for making concrete “greener”
April 8, 2013 4:20 am | News | Comments
The challenge of making concrete greener—reducing its sizable carbon footprint without...
Performance improvement in solar-powered hydrogen generation
May 15, 2013 9:43 am | News | CommentsUsing a powerful combination of microanalytic techniques that simultaneously image photoelectric current and chemical reaction rates across a surface on a micrometer scale, researchers at NIST have shed new light on what may become a cost-effective way to generate hydrogen gas directly from water and sunlight.
Innovation in spectroscopy could improve greenhouse gas detection
May 15, 2013 8:37 am | News | CommentsDetecting greenhouse gases in the atmosphere could soon become far easier with the help of an innovative technique developed by a team at NIST, where scientists have overcome an issue preventing the effective use of lasers to rapidly scan samples. The team says the technique also could work for other jobs that require gas detection, including the search for hidden explosives and monitoring chemical processes in industry and the environment.
Transfer of ultraprecise time signals over a wireless optical channel
May 2, 2013 8:18 am | News | CommentsBy bouncing eye-safe laser pulses off a mirror on a hillside, researchers at NIST have transferred ultraprecise time signals through open air with unprecedented precision equivalent to the "ticking" of the world's best next-generation atomic clocks. The demonstration shows how next-generation atomic clocks at different locations could be linked wirelessly to improve distribution of time and frequency information.
Researchers propose new old way to purify carbon nanotubes
May 1, 2013 11:46 am | News | CommentsAn old, somewhat passé, trick used to purify protein samples based on their affinity for water has found new fans at NIST, where materials scientists are using it to divvy up solutions of carbon nanotubes, separating the metallic nanotubes from semiconductors. They say it's a fast, easy, and cheap way to produce high-purity samples of carbon nanotubes for use in nanoscale electronics and many other applications.
Scientists use cloud of atoms as optical memory device
April 4, 2013 9:11 am | News | CommentsTalk about storing data in the cloud. Scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute of NIST and the University of Maryland have taken this to a whole new level by demonstrating that they can store visual images within quite an ethereal memory device—a thin vapor of rubidium atoms. The effort may prove helpful in creating memory for quantum computers.
Quantum dot commands light
April 2, 2013 10:06 am | by E. Edwards, JQI | News | CommentsAll computers, even the future quantum versions, use logic operations or “gates,” which are the fundamental building blocks of computational processes. Joint Quantum Institute scientists, led by Professor Edo Waks, have performed an ultrafast logic gate on a photon, using a semiconductor quantum dot. The logic is a Controlled-NOT gate, which is significant because it can serve as the basis for any quantum information protocol.
Nanoscale edge variations observed with record-breaking resolution
March 28, 2013 9:35 am | News | CommentsA team of researchers from the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, the University of Maryland, and NIST have measured large variations in the magnetic properties along the edge of a thin-film 500-nm-diameter disk. This work represents a significant development in the measurement of magnetic thin-film edge properties, which are especially important for nanodevices, such as magnetic memory cells, where the edge to area ratio is large.
NIST tests underscore potential hazards of green laser pointers
March 21, 2013 8:49 am | News | CommentsUsing a low-cost apparatus designed to quickly and accurately measure the properties of handheld laser devices, NIST researchers tested 122 laser pointers and found that nearly 90% of green pointers and about 44% of red pointers tested were out of compliance with federal safety regulations. The NIST test apparatus was designed so that it can be replicated easily by other institutions.
The fight against SEM contamination
March 15, 2013 11:35 am | News | CommentsEfforts to eliminate contamination has allowed users of scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) to measure the exact features of a sample, not the sample features plus a layer of contamination. But contamination persists, which is why researchers at NIST are working to elevate microscope accuracy by eliminating the gradual buildup of carbonaceous material on a sample, introduced by the action of the charged particle beam.
NIST microscope measures nanomagnet property vital to spintronics
March 15, 2013 11:07 am | News | CommentsResearchers at NIST have developed a new microscope able to view and measure an important but elusive property of the nanoscale magnets used in an advanced, experimental form of digital memory. The new instrument already has demonstrated its utility with initial results that suggest how to limit power consumption in future computer memories.
Mechanical microdrum used as quantum memory
March 13, 2013 4:04 pm | News | CommentsOne of the oldest forms of computer memory is back again—but in a 21st century microscopic device designed by physicists at NIST for possible use in a quantum computer. The NIST team has demonstrated that information encoded as a specific point in a traveling microwave signal—the vertical and horizontal positions of a wave pattern at a certain time—can be transferred to the mechanical beat of a microdrum and later retrieved with 65% efficiency, a good figure for experimental systems like this.
Electron field emitter technology to improve imaging, communications
March 7, 2013 10:24 am | News | CommentsScientists in Maryland have built a new practical, high-efficiency nanostructured electron source. Unlike thermionic electron sources, which use an electric current to boil electrons off the surface of a wire, the new emitter uses highly porous silicon carbide to avoid the energy efficiency problems of traditional emitters. This type of field emitter has a fast response and could lead to improved X-ray imaging systems.
Quantum refrigerator offers extreme cooling and convenience
March 6, 2013 3:21 pm | News | CommentsResearchers at the NIST have demonstrated a solid-state refrigerator that uses quantum physics in micro- and nanostructures to cool a much larger object to extremely low temperatures. What's more, the prototype NIST refrigerator, which measures a few inches in outer dimensions, enables researchers to place any suitable object in the cooling zone and later remove and replace it, similar to an all-purpose kitchen refrigerator.
Calculating quantum vacuum forces
February 8, 2013 8:44 am | News | CommentsOne of the surprising predictions of quantum mechanics is that uncharged conductors can attract each other over small distances, even in empty space. While the resulting “Casimir force” has been accurately measured and calculated for simple flat conductors, researchers have solved the much more complicated problem of calculating this force between metal plates with complicated periodic nanoscale structures on their surfaces.
New guide will allow electric utilities to develop green button Web tools
February 7, 2013 9:30 am | News | CommentsA new guide for Web developers recently released by NIST will make it easier for electric utilities and vendors to give customers convenient, electronic access to their energy usage data with tools and applications developed as part of the new "Green Button" initiative.
Essential armchair reading for nanotube researchers
February 5, 2013 12:10 pm | News | CommentsThe first fruits of a cooperative venture between scientists at Rice University and NIST have appeared in a paper that brings together a wealth of information for those who wish to use the unique properties of metallic carbon nanotubes. The article gathers research about the separation and fundamental characteristics of armchair carbon nanotubes, which have been of particular interest to researchers trying to tune their electronic and optical properties.
Nanotubes-on-a-chip may simplify optical power measurements
January 25, 2013 11:37 am | News | CommentsNIST has demonstrated a novel chip-scale instrument made of carbon nanotubes that may simplify absolute measurements of laser power, especially the light signals transmitted by optical fibers in telecommunications networks. The prototype device, a miniature version of an instrument called a cryogenic radiometer, is a silicon chip topped with circular mats of carbon nanotubes standing on end.
All that glitters is not gold
January 25, 2013 8:24 am | News | CommentsA team of researchers at NIST has shown that by bringing gold nanoparticles close to the dots and using a DNA template to control the distances, the intensity of a quantum dot's fluorescence can be predictably increased or decreased. This breakthrough opens a potential path to using quantum dots as a component in better photodetectors, chemical sensors, and nanoscale lasers.
Controlling particles for directed self-assembly of colloidal crystals
January 18, 2013 8:29 am | News | CommentsResearchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology and Johns Hopkins University have developed a technique to reliably manipulate hundreds of individual micrometer-sized colloid particles to create crystals with controlled dimensions. The accomplishment is an important milestone for understanding how to direct and control the assembly of microscale and nanoscale objects for nanomanufacturing applications.
Millimeter-level naked-eye detection of cesium location at solid surface
January 16, 2013 9:48 am | News | CommentsThe NIMS International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics has developed a supermolecular material which makes it possible to visualize the distribution of cesium on the surface of solids and in living organisms by fluorescence.
NIST patent could give lab-on-a-chip technology long shelf life
January 9, 2013 11:17 am | News | CommentsHaving blood drawn and analyzed to diagnose disease is a process that can take a few days, but what if your doctor could perform this analysis in moments, right before your eyes? That's the promise of "lab-on-a-chip" technology, and researchers are working on a variety of fronts to remove technical roadblocks. A new idea addresses the issue of sensor shelf life, showing how some such chips might be made to last for months or more until needed.
“Standard quantum limit” smashed
January 8, 2013 4:27 pm | News | CommentsCommunicating with light may soon get a lot easier, hints recent research from NIST and the University of Maryland's Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), where scientists have potentially found a way to overcome a longstanding barrier to cleaner signals.
Photons emitted by quantum dots can be made indistinguishable
December 20, 2012 9:51 am | News | CommentsAn international collaboration of researchers has demonstrated the ability to make photons emitted by quantum dots at different frequencies identical to each other by shifting their frequencies to match. This "quantum frequency conversion" is an important step for making solid-state, single photon sources, including quantum dots, more useful light sources for photonic quantum information science.
For newly discovered 'quantum spin liquid', the beauty is in its simplicity
December 19, 2012 3:49 pm | News | CommentsA research team including scientists from NIST has confirmed long-standing suspicions among physicists that electrons in a crystalline structure called a kagome lattice can form a "spin liquid," a novel quantum state of matter in which the electrons' magnetic orientation remains in a constant state of change.
Physicists achieve elusive “evaporative cooling” of molecules
December 19, 2012 1:55 pm | News | CommentsEvaporative cooling has long been used to cool atoms, but it has never before been done by molecules—two different atoms bonded together. Achieving a goal considered nearly impossible, JILA physicists have done this, chilling a gas of molecules to very low temperatures by adapting the familiar process by which a hot cup of coffee cools.
