Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology articles from May 2002

Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology archives from May 2002

Accelerating scientific discovery through computation and visualization II.
May 1, 2002... This is the second in a series of articles describing a wide variety of projects at NIST that synergistically combine physical science and information science. It describes, through examples, how the Scientific Applications and Visualization...

The role of rendering in the competence project in measurement science for optical reflection and scattering.
May 1, 2002... Computer rendering is used to simulate the appearance of lighted objects for applications in architectural design, for animation and simulation in the entertainment industry, and for display and design in the automobile industry. Rapid advances...

Through measurement to knowledge: the inaugural lecture of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1882).
May 1, 2002... This paper is a contribution to the NIST Centennial 2001. It presents the first complete English translation of the inaugural speech of Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on the occasion of his appointment as Professor at the University of Leiden (The...

A critical evaluation of interlaboratory data on total, elemental, and isotopic carbon in the carbonaceous particle reference material, NIST SRM 1649a.(Statistical Data Included)
May 1, 2002... Because of increased interest in the marine and atmospheric sciences in elemental carbon (EC), or black carbon (BC) or soot carbon (SC), and because of the difficulties in analyzing or even defining this pervasive component of particulate...

Effect of loading rate upon conventional ceramic microindentation hardness.
May 1, 2002... The world standards for conventional ceramic hardness have varying requirements for control of loading rate during the indentation cycle. A literature review suggests that loading rate may affect measured hardness in some instances. In view of...

NIST reports measurable success of Advanced Encryption Standard. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... An independent study confirms industrys early adoption and implementation of NIST's Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 197, Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). The number of products worldwide that implemented the NIST Data...

NIST data underpins new reference work. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A group of 17 scientists at Kobe University, Japan, have published an extensive set of data entitled Doppler-Free High Resolution Spectral Atlas of Iodine Molecule, 15000 to 19000 [cm.sup.-1]. The set consists of four volumes, each having more...

NIST's improved inverse solution method presses dopant profiling towards industry goals. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NIST has demonstrated a higher accuracy and higher spatial resolution inverse solution method for determining dopant profiles from scanning capacitance microscope (SCM) images of silicon transistors. Dopant profiles are a major factor...

NIST collaboration to increase machining productivity for U.S. Navy. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NIST has been collaborating with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock, MD, and the Naval Foundry and Propeller Center, Philadelphia, PA, since 1999. This collaboration resulted in significant advancements in the understanding of...

Initial tests show high performance of NIST RM 8240 standard bullets. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The fabrication of 20 standard bullets (Reference Material 8240) was completed on Jan. 7, 2002, by a team composed of NIST researchers. Based on comments received from bullet examiners on prototype standard bullets developed at NIST in 1998,...

W3C and NIST release DOM Conformance Test Suite. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), in partnership with NIST, released the first version of the Document Object Model (DOM) Conformance Test Suite, Level 1 Core. The DOM Test Suite aims to help implementers test their implementations...

Seventh NIAP Common Criteria Testing Laboratory approved for it security testing. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), a U.S. Government collaboration between NIST and the National Security Agency, announced approval of the seventh information technology security testing laboratory under the Common Criteria...

Independent testing for conformance to BACnet[R] begins. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... For many years, the building industry struggled with the problem of integrating control devices made by different manufacturers in order to optimize operations, improve safety, and reduce maintenance costs. NIST researchers worked with industry...

PARCS advances through NASA reviews. (News Briefs).(Primary Atomic Reference Clock in Space)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The NIST-led program entitled Primary Atomic Reference Clock in Space (PARCS) has successfully completed its second NASA review, the requirements definition review. This review, which included both a science panel and an engineering panel,...

Quenched narrow-line cooling of calcium. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Since their invention, atomic clocks have operated in the microwave portion of the spectrum, where their output frequencies have been amenable to electronic systems. However, the precision of such standards has been limited by their spectral...

Extreme ultraviolet reflectivity intercomparison. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... In the microelectronics industry, the number of transistors on an integrated-circuit chip doubles about every 18 months (Moore's Law). This accomplishment has been made possible by utilizing shorter and shorter wavelengths of radiation for...

Rotating condensates put new spin on superfluidity. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Scientists at NIST have been studying the behavior of Bose-Einstein condensates subject to rotation of the trap, which is a key issue in the phenomenon of superfluidity. When the trap is subject to a low rate of rotation, the condensate does...

Thermal-Infrared Transfer Radiometer validates radiance scales used on land, at sea, and in space. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Thermal-Infrared Transfer Radiometer (TXR) was designed at NIST to permit NIST staff to perform field calibrations of critical instruments used for environmental remote sensing. As word spread through the remote-sensing calibration...

Photoassociation in a Bose-Einstein condensate. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Two colliding atoms can absorb a photon and be photoassociated into an excited, diatomic molecule. NIST researchers investigated the fundamental rate at which this process can take place in a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) and demonstrated that...

Broadband ferromagnetic resonance spectrometer. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NIST researchers have constructed a broadband spectrometer for measurements of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in magnetic thin films from 1 GHz to 26 GHz. Like electron paramagnetic resonance and nuclear magnetic resonance, FMR involves...

Brillouin light scattering. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NIST scientists have recently implemented a Brillouin light scattering facility for characterizing acoustic and magnetic waves in thin-film and bulk materials. This system is capable of measurements in the 3 GHz to 300 GHz range with sampling...

New method to measure mass distribution of polyolefins. (News Briefs).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... A new technique for measuring the molecular mass distribution of polyolefins has been developed by researchers at NIST. The new method is based on mass spectrometry, a long-standing technique for characterizing low mass substances, but one that...

NIST performs electromagnetic shielding effectiveness tests on a commercial aircraft. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NIST recently performed electromagnetic shielding effectiveness tests on a commercial aircraft using NIST designed broadband horn antennas and specialized time domain measurement methodology. The information gained in this effort is being used...

NIST open new special test measurement service for 2.92 mm coaxial power detectors. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Staff at NIST recently opened a new Special Test Service for 2.92 mm coaxial power detectors. This new service measures the effective efficiency and calibration factor of thermistor, thin-film, and thermoelectric power detectors over a...

NIST study accelerates understanding of oxidation mechanisms important to laser manufacturers. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Researchers at NIST have shown that the oxidation kinetics of AlGaAs are independent of semiconductor growth method and edge preparation conditions. Native semiconductor oxide layers are critical components of optoelectronic devices, such as...

NIST researchers measure wavelength-dependent gain of raman fiber optical amplifiers. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Staff at NIST recently completed measurements of the dependence of Raman gain in optical fiber on both the difference between the pump and signal wavelengths and the absolute pump wavelength. These measurements, made on four standard...

Nist develops accurate model for ion bombardment energies in plasma etchers. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NIST scientists have recently developed and validated a model for predicting the kinetic energy of ions in plasma etching reactors used by the semiconductor industry. During plasma etching, substrates are bombarded by reactive chemical species...

Export Alert! Service helps industry. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology to provide online warning of trade-related technical regulations)(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The free Export Alert! web-based system operated by NIST automatically provides early warning of changes in trade-related technical regulations proposed by members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The OSS National Center for Standards and...

Public release of the NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator 2.0. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology releases computer program for smoke flow monitoring)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Official release versions of NISTs computer programs for modeling and visualizing fire and smoke flow, Fire Dynamics Simulator 2.0 and Smokeview 2.0, are now available for download at http://fire.nist.gov/fds/. The NIST Fire Dynamics Simulator...

Prototype of flexible ball step gauge artifact. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology, Air Force develop standardized gauge for coordinate measuring machines)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... As part of the program to maintain quality control on coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) for the Air Force, NIST completed a prototype ball step gauge artifact. The gauge is the first of a series to be used throughout the Air Force as a new...

NIST researchers develop revolutionary detector for quantum communications system. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NIST, in collaboration with Stanford University and Boston University, has demonstrated the first quantum-communications detector system that not only indicates when a photon arrives, but also determines how many photons arrive simultaneously....

Helping the postal service add "zap" to the mail. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology experiments on decontaminating parcel mail of anthrax spores)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... As a member of the Mail Security Task Force of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), NIST has been working on sanitizing letter mail contaminated or possibly cross-contaminated by the anthrax bioterror actions of last...

Newest critical dimension scanning electron microscopes use NIST technology. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Scanning electron microscopes (SEM) are used extensively in the semiconductor production environment. NIST scientists are helping to improve SEM performance with an objective diagnostic procedure to ensure data fidelity by looking at the...

Spur-free, distortion-free reference clock. (News Briefs).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... New generations of high-resolution Doppler radar rely on advanced digital-imaging and object-identification techniques. To test high data rate, high-fidelity digital signal processors in this application, the reference clock must have extremely...

NIST releases two new calibration standards for optical fiber communications. (Standard Reference Materials).(National Institute of Standards and Technology)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... NIST is releasing two artifact calibration standards relating to polarization dependent measurements in optical fiber telecommunications applications. NIST will provide traceable measurements for polarization dependent loss (PDL) in...