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International

Joint Optoelectronics Project Completes Seven Years of Success

If breaking a mirror brings you seven years of bad fortune, then breaking research barriers yields the opposite result.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has collaborated on the final report of a pioneering program that gave American and Japanese researchers unprecedented access to research on advanced computing technologies that integrate optical, optoelectronic and electronic components.

The U.S.-Japan Joint Optoelectronics Project (JOP) has provided a unique way to foster international cooperation and progress in a competitive high-technology field while protecting intellectual property in both countries. It offered, in effect, a virtual laboratory in which advanced optoelectronic devices and components still in the research and development stages were made available to systems researchers and designers eager to develop new technologies.

Since its inception, the JOP has enjoyed significant technical accomplishments, resulting in more than 100 research publications, the stimulation of new research efforts, products, patents and increased trade between the two countries over a period of about seven years. The JOP encouraged advanced research by providing access to advanced devices that were not yet commercially available.

JOP turned a sensitive issue—competition between the technology industries of both countries—into an activity with substantial benefits. The project created a remarkable international collaboration, one in which two traditional rivals in the scientific and engineering arenas joined to advance a technology valuable to both.

The research focused on components that serve as a bridge between traditional electronic computers and those using optical technologies envisioned for the future. Merging optical and electronic technologies offers a path toward faster, more versatile computers.

JOP helped overcome cultural differences between the U.S. and Japanese research and business communities, and reduced legal barriers, import/export complexities and paperwork that can slow the pace of international collaboration.

Besides business and university participants, five federal agencies were active in the conduct of the JOP: the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Department of Energy, the Department of State and NIST. NIST’s Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory served as the lead technical agency in the project.

The success of the JOP has led NSF and DARPA to develop a domestic program, with prospects for participation by other federal agencies and for future internationalization, based on JOP principles. Initiation of the activity, known as the Photonics Technology Access Program (PTAP), is currently undergoing final approval.

Single copies of the report are available at no charge from NIST by calling (301) 975-NIST (6478) or sending an e-mail to inquiries@nist.gov. For more information on the JOP, go to www.oida.org/JOP; for more on PTAP, go to www.oida.org/PTAP.

Media Contact:
Philip Bulman, (301) 975-5661

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Proceedings

New Publication Documents International Welding Conference

Persons interested in the use of computer technology in welding will want to get a copy of the proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Computer Technology in Welding held Dec. 5-6, 2001, in Columbus, Ohio. The conference was sponsored by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the American Welding Society and the Welding Institute.

The proceedings include 32 presentations grouped under the following categories: sensing and control of gas metal arc welding; sensing and control of gas tungsten arc welding; sensing and control of variable polarity plasma arc welding; imaging, fabrication quality and standards; sensing and control systems; modeling of distortion and stress; predicting microstructures and performance, and general modeling topics.

The proceedings contain the keynote talk on progress toward total automation and include all the manuscripts submitted including viewgraphs.

Copies of the proceedings in either paper or CD format may be obtained by contacting Tom Siewert.

Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246

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Materials Science

New Method Can Speed the Search for High-Tech Films

A new rapid prototyping technique developed by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) could rev up the search for thin films with properties optimized for next-generation memory devices and wireless communications gear.

With the novel method—called dual-beam, dual-target, pulsed-laser deposition—NIST researchers can create libraries of inorganic thin films that vary, predictably, in thickness and chemical composition. Mass producing samples of films composed of two or more compounds opens the way to high-throughput screening that can narrow the hunt for new materials.

NIST materials scientists Peter Schenck and Debra Kaiser demonstrated their new technique by creating libraries of barium strontium titanate (BST) films, a candidate to replace silicon-dioxide insulators in future dynamic random access memories. Schenck and Kaiser’s technique splits a laser beam so that the high-energy light strikes two sets of starting materials simultaneously.

Both target materials vaporize, creating gas plumes that mix before depositing and crystallizing on a silicon wafer nearby. By adjusting the laser’s energy and the spacing between the targets, the researchers can control both the composition and thickness of the film deposited on the substrate. For example, the researchers created samples with narrow bands of uniform thickness, while the relative amounts of barium, strontium and titanium varied systematically across each band.

Data gathered automatically after the process are used to map film thickness. Using a model that they developed, Schenck and Kaiser then can estimate the chemical composition at hundreds of points in a sample, eliminating a time-consuming chore. They are now extending the technique to other combinations of inorganic materials and to even thinner films.

Schenck and Kaiser report on their system for fabricating libraries of thin film samples in a forthcoming article in Proceedings of Combi 2002. For more information, contact Peter Schenck. A description of the system can be found at www.ceramics.nist.gov/programs/thinfilms/PLD.html.

Media Contact:
Mark Bello, (301) 975-3776

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Time and Frequency

New Publication Highlights Recent NIST Ion Trapping Research

The ability to trap ions for long periods of time allows researchers to “interrogate” these atomic particles and observe changes in their states. Since ions are nearly motionless during the observation period, an ion trap can provide the basis for highly stable and accurate atomic oscillators that could eventually replace today’s frequency standards. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has been a world leader in the science of ion trapping for years.

Now, the recent efforts of NIST’s Time and Frequency Division in the areas of ion trapping and laser cooling are showcased in a new publication that reprints 29 papers published between January 1999 and October 2001. This is the sixth volume of these reprints going back to 1985.

Papers in the latest edition are grouped by the following categories: frequency standards and metrology; laser-cooled non-neutral plasmas; quantum mechanics and quantum metrology; and measurement techniques. They were published originally in journals such as Science, Nature, Physics Today, Physical Review Letters and various conference proceedings. The topics covered range include spectroscopy of trapped ions, optical clocks, experimental entanglement of four particles, and visible lasers with sub-hertz linewidths.

Copies of NIST Technical Note 1524, Trapped Ions and Laser Cooling, VI, edited by James C. Bergquist, John J. Bollinger, Wayne M. Itano and David J. Wineland, may be obtained by contacting the Time and Frequency Division, NIST, MC 847.00, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328.

Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246

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Honors

NIST Researcher Named One of the World’s Top Young Innovators

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) physicist Jun Ye has been chosen as one of the world’s 100 Top Young Innovators (known as the TR100) by Technology Review, a monthly magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The TR100—all individuals under 35 years of age as of Jan. 1, 2002—are researchers, the magazine states, “whose work and ideas will change the world.” The theme for this second series of TR100 awards (the first were given out in 1999) is “transforming existing industries and creating new ones.”

Ye, a fellow of JILA (a collaborative institute of NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder) and an assistant professor of physics at CU-Boulder, was recognized for work with potential application in nanotechnology, specifically in the fields of ultrasensitive high-resolution laser spectroscopy, cold atoms, continuous-wave and ultrafast-pulse laser stabilization, and optical frequency standards. The magazine’s profile of Ye states that “he synchronized and phase-tracked two pulsating beams of different colors so closely that they melded into one coherent beam—a feat physicists had thought impossible. Ye’s phase-locked pulses can be shaped and shortened when different lasers are added to the mix.”

The award was presented to Ye at a ceremony at MIT on May 23, 2002.

Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246

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Editor: Michael E. Newman

Date created: 5/29/2002
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov