Nuclear physics

News and Updates

Impeding the Impedance: Research Reveals How to Design a Better Next-Generation Lithium-Ion Battery

November 16, 2021

The newest generation of lithium-ion batteries now under development promises a revolution in powering cell phones, electric vehicles, laptops and myriad other

A man in a white lab coat and black face mask (Jeffrey Herrera) stands near a wall of protective equipment like long gloves.

Spotlight: Jeffrey Herrera’s Journey Into Science and Safety

October 4, 2021

Jeffrey Herrera is one of NIST’s health physicists, ensuring our ability to safely use radioactive materials for research and supporting radiation safety

Groundbreaking Technique Yields Important New Details on Silicon, Subatomic Particles and Possible ‘Fifth Force’

September 9, 2021

Using a groundbreaking new technique at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an international collaboration led by NIST researchers has

Projects and Programs

Fundamental Physics: Search for Time Reversal Violation in Polarized Neutron Decay (emiT)

Completed

The "emiT" experiment searched for time-reversal symmetry violation term in neutron beta decay. It did so by measuring electron-proton coincidence events from

Security (Archive): Neutron Detector Replacement Program

Completed

The Department of Homeland Security/Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DHS/DNDO) is pursuing a course to transform 3He alternative technologies into integrated

Fundamental Physics: Experiments with a Precision Neutron Polarimeter

Ongoing

The Neutron Spin Rotation (NSR) collaboration has developed a neutron spin polarimeter that has allowed the precise measurement of spin rotations at a level of

Fundamental Physics: Precision Measurement of the Branching Ratio and Energy Spectrum of Radiative Neutron Decay

Completed

Neutron beta-decay is typically considered as a three-body process, but it is always accompanied by inner-bremsstrahlung soft photons, n → e− + p + νe + γ. This

Publications

The PROSPECT Experiment

December 14, 2021

Author(s)

Hans Pieter Mumm

The Precision Reactor Oscillation and Spectrum Experiment, PROSPECT, is designed to both perform a reactor-model independent search for eV-scale sterile

Radiocarbon age is just a number

December 7, 2021

Author(s)

Adam Fleisher

Pendellosung Interferometry Probes the Neutron Charge Radius, Lattice Dynamics, and Fifth Forces

September 10, 2021

Author(s)

Benjamin J. Heacock, Robert W. Haun, Michael G. Huber, Albert Henins, Robert C. Valdillez, Takuhiro Fujiie, Katsuya Hirota, Masaaki Kitaguchi, Hirohiko Shimizu, Takuya Hosobata, Masahiro Takeda, Yutaka Yamagata

Structure factors describe how incident radiation is scattered from materials such as silicon and germanium and characterize the physical interaction between

Achromatic Multi Beam Two Phase Grating Neutron Interferometer

April 21, 2021

Author(s)

Michael G. Huber, Daniel S. Hussey, Muhammad D. Arif, David L. Jacobson, Jacob LaManna, Wakana Ueno, Han Wen, Dmitry Pushin, Dusan Sarenac, David Cory, Houxun Miao, Takenao Shinohara, Joseph Parker

We demonstrate a two phase grating multi beam neutron interferometer by adopting a modified Ronchi setup [1] to a neutron beam in a far-field regime. The

Tools and Instruments

Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectrometer

Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy uses positrons to probe material defects/voids/free volume at the sub-nm scale. The general working principle is

Material Analysis Using Neutron Depth Profiling

Light elements such as helium, lithium, boron, and nitrogen are essential constituents in materials that enable energy technologies; lithium ion batteries