One of NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Network dishes

Credit: NASA

Working in collaboration with researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), JILA physicists are at the forefront of efforts to invent and refine precision measurement tools. These tools allow scientists to probe tiny structures inside living cells, study the properties of ultracold matter, monitor the dynamics of chemical reactions, directly measure the frequency of visible light, study the behavior of electrons in semiconductors, precisely transmit time and frequency information from atomic clocks, and investigate phenomena heretofore too small or too fast to "see," much less precisely quantify. Precision measurement research falls into four broad areas: precision optical frequency metrology, atomic clocks, ultrasensitive devices, and measurements of fundamental parameters. Within these areas, scientists are seeking answers to such questions as:

• Can we use measurements of the frequency of visible light to create ultrastable microwave frequencies?
• Can we design optical atomic clocks that measure time a hundred times more precisely than today's microwave cesium atomic clocks?
• What is the most accurate and secure way to communicate time and frequency?
• Can we refine precision measurement to not only examine the fundamental processes of nature but also, in some cases, to manipulate them?
• Can we build an ammeter capable of counting electrons one at time, sense the recoil force imparted by one electron as it tunnels between two electrodes, or detect an individual far-infrared photon by the heat that it carries?
• How can we use precision laser light to identify and investigate atoms and molecules?
• How can we precisely detect gravitational waves emanating from black hole binaries?