An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Physics Laboratory: Fiscal Year 2008 (2008)

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Programs Funded Under the America COMPETES Act The Physics Laboratory has used its existing resources and expertise to leverage funds provided under the America COMPETES Act of 2007 to rapidly develop programs that address the objectives of the act and of the American Competitiveness Initiative. The funding figures mentioned below were provided under the America COMPETES Act of 2007. • Atomic Physics Division: NIST received about $6 million for quantum information science. One-third (about $2 million) was combined with funding and support from the University of Maryland and the National Security Agency to support the new Joint Quantum Institute. Good progress is being made on advancing plans for a building to house the new center and on experiments to explore cold atoms held in a deformable lattice as a medium for quantum computation. This progress has allowed a new hire in this area. • Electron and Optical Physics Division: This division participated in two projects. The SURF III upgrade and EUV activities benefited from $475,000 in funding; the results have been quite positive. The quantum telecommuni- cations project received $100,000, which have been very useful for the development of this laboratory. • Ionizing Radiation Division: This division is using $380,000 of its funding for a new NIST initiative in biomedical imaging. • Quantum Physics Division: The division received funding of $100,000 in the area of mesoscopic physics, bridging the gap between quantum and classical physics, and electronic measurement work under the umbrella of quantum information. The funding aided in the development of the pioneering field of microwave quantum optics—in particular, the noiseless amplification of microwave signals with innovative phase-sensitive amplifiers. • Time and Frequency Division: The division received funding in the amount of $1,280,000 for three areas in FY 2007: (1) quantum computing; (2) optical clocks, and (3) chip-scale devices. These areas are making excellent progress. 57