Related topics: light · laser · electrons · molecules · atoms

NIST ytterbium atomic clocks set record for stability

A pair of experimental atomic clocks based on ytterbium atoms at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has set a new record for stability. The clocks act like 21st-century pendulums or metronomes that ...

Geometry of intricately fabricated glass makes light trap itself

Laser light traveling through ornately microfabricated glass has been shown to interact with itself to form self-sustaining wave patterns called solitons. The intricate design fabricated in the glass is a type of "photonic ...

The random anti-laser

The laser is the perfect light source—as long as it is provided with energy, it generates light of a specific, well-defined colour. However, it is also possible to create its opposite—an object that perfectly absorbs ...

Scientists develop spectacles for X-ray lasers

An international team of scientists has tailored special X-ray glasses to concentrate the beam of an X-ray laser stronger than ever before. The individually produced corrective lens eliminates the inevitable defects of an ...

A primary standard for measuring vacuum

A novel, quantum-based vacuum gauge system invented by researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has passed its first test to be a true primary standard—that is, intrinsically accurate without ...

Scientists discover a new phase of high-density, ultra-hot ice

The outer planets of our solar system, Uranus and Neptune, are water-rich gas giants. These planets have extreme pressures 2 million times the Earth's atmosphere. They also have interiors as hot as the surface of the sun. ...

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