NIST-PREP News

Physics and CU PREP alum Dr. Tara Fortier (PhDPhys'03) featured in NIST's Taking Measure blog

Anonymous — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 16:05:40 +0000

Physics and CU PREP alum Dr. Tara Fortier (PhDPhys'03) featured in NIST's Taking Measure blog Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/14/2023 - 09:05

Physics and CU PREP alum, Dr. Tara Fortier (PhDPhys'03) describes how the definition of a second will soon become more precise in NIST's Taking Measure blog.

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CU PREP researchers collaborate on advancing MRI technology

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 20:17:36 +0000

CU PREP researchers collaborate on advancing MRI technology Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 09/15/2023 - 14:17

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CU PREP students help create chip-scale atomic beam device

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 21:11:40 +0000

CU PREP students help create chip-scale atomic beam device Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 07/10/2023 - 15:11

Image of atomic beam device with a peanut for scale. Rb vapor in the source cavity feeds a buried microcapillary array and forms an atomic beam (indicated by a red-to-blue arrow) in the drift cavity. Credit: Nature Communications (2023)

CU Physics graduate students Gabriela D. Martinez and Alexander Staron helped create a miniature atomic clock in collaboration with NIST-Boulder scientists John Kitching and William R. McGehee in the NIST atomic devices and instrumentation group, and Georgia Tech scientists Chao Li and Chandra Raman. The CU Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) funds Gabriela and Alexander to work with NIST scientists on their PhD research. PREP is a cooperative agreement between NIST and the ��. The team’s published paper in Nature Communications details their research accomplishments. Their work was also published in a news article on phys.org written by NIST's Rebecca Jacobson, and featured in Tech Explorist.

Alexander Staron (left), William McGehee and Gabriela Martinez worked together on a new chip-scale version of an atomic beam clock, a tiny fraction of the size of the original instrument shown here. McGehee is a NIST scientist, and Staron and Martinez are CU Physics graduate students in PREP. Credit: R. Jacobson/NIST

Gaby and Alex’s team developed a chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC) that is a little larger than a peanut. Rubidium atoms in the atomic beam provide the microwave quantum transition that is used by the clock to provide a relative frequency stability of 1.2×10^(-9)/√Hz. The device uses the 6.8GHz ground state splitting of ⁸⁷Rb as the reference frequency. The device uses a microfabricated channel array developed at Georgia Tech, which reduces interactions with background air molecules so that the Rb atoms can traverse the 1 cm-long device without a collision. Their device improves on previous CSAC’s with much lower timing drift, with a goal of sub-microsecond timing error over several days. Possible applications are atom interferometry, Rydberg atom electrometry, and underwater exploration where GPS signals do not reach by using precise time-of-flight sonar soundings from GPS-equipped buoys.

From Rebecca Jacobson's article featured on phys.org:
"NIST has been using atomic beams for timekeeping since the 1950s. For decades, beam clocks were used to keep the primary standard for the second, and they are still part of NIST's national timekeeping ensemble. Beam clocks are precise, stable and accurate, but they're currently not the most portable. Smaller commercial clocks about the size of a briefcase are common, but they still require a significant amount of power (about 50 watts) to run. For comparison, smartphones require about a third of a watt for typical operation. Chip-scale atomic clocks (CSACs) were developed by NIST in 2001. "The CSAC is low-power and has high performance given its size. It's a wonderful device, but it does drift after running for a few thousand seconds," said William McGehee, a physicist at NIST."

Gaby is a fifth-year physics graduate student from Cal Poly Humboldt University. She joined PREP in 2019 and plans to graduate next year. Alex is a third-year physics graduate student from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and joined PREP in 2022.

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2023 NIST-PREP Graduates

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 22:58:25 +0000

2023 NIST-PREP Graduates Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/28/2023 - 16:58

Congratulations to our 2023 PREP student graduates!

Mohammad Alhejji – Ph.D. in Physics
Arik Avagyan – Ph.D. in Physics
Elizabeth Eyeson – Bachelor’s in Computer Science with a Minor in Business
Daniel Lesko – Ph.D. in Chemical Physics
Nicholas Nardelli – Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering
Raj Patel – Master’s in Aerospace Engineering Sciences and Astrodynamics/Satellite Navigation
Miranda Thompson – Ph.D. in Physics
Konrad Ziegler – Bachelor’s Degree in Physics and Mathematics

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NIST-PREP Program Wins $94.5M Award to Continue Successful NIST-�� Collaboration

Anonymous — Tue, 25 Apr 2023 15:39:21 +0000

NIST-PREP Program Wins $94.5M Award to Continue Successful NIST-�� Collaboration Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 04/25/2023 - 09:39

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NIST-PREP News

Physics and CU PREP alum Dr. Tara Fortier (PhDPhys'03) featured in NIST's Taking Measure blog

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CU PREP researchers collaborate on advancing MRI technology

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CU PREP students help create chip-scale atomic beam device

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2023 NIST-PREP Graduates

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NIST-PREP Program Wins $94.5M Award to Continue Successful NIST-���������� Collaboration

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NIST-PREP Program Wins $94.5M Award to Continue Successful NIST-�� Collaboration