Ultraviolet 'Ruler' (5940506283)
The new JILA ultraviolet "ruler" is made by exposing xenon gas atoms to a special type of infrared laser light called a femtosecond frequency "comb." The laser light is bounced back and forth between highly ref... More
Molecular Fingerprinting (5940479099)
Artist's rendering of JILA's molecular fingerprinting system. A gas mixture (left) is probed by a frequency comb, a laser-based tool for identifying different colors of light. By analyzing the amounts of specif... More
Frequency Comb (5881382659)
Schematic of a breath analyzer that uses frequency combs, an optical tool that led to a recent Nobel Prize in Physics for JILA fellow Jan Hall. Credit: Univ. of Colorado/JILA Disclaimer: Any mention of commerci... More
Frequency Comb Cavities (9500119281)
NIST physicists have developed a one-minute process for creating optical microcavities made of fused quartz. The photo shows four cavities with diameters (top to bottom) of 0.36 millimeters (mm), 0.71 mm, 1.2 m... More
Starlight (6815972618) - A close up of a cell phone with multiple line...
NIST researchers and collaborators measured the frequencies, or colors, of infrared starlight (three solid bands with faint tick marks indicating where light is absorbed by the atmosphere) by comparing the miss... More
Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) frequency comb (6806854303)
Artist's conception of JILA's extreme ultraviolet (EUV) frequency comb. The original light source is a pulsed infrared laser, which is used to create a train of attosecond-long pulse bursts at EUV wavelengths (... More
Comb Apparatus (7187334463)
This colorful apparatus is a key part of the JILA frequency comb instrument used to measure trace gases for biomedical applications. The beam from a powerful fiber laser is converted by a special crystal and ot... More
Optical Comb (5881387615)
The new JILA technique uses infrared laser light in many different colors, or frequencies, to identify trace levels of different molecules at the same time. For example, water molecules (blue) and ammonia molec... More