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An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Physics Laboratory Fiscal Year 2008 (2008) / Chapter Skim
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Time and Frequency Division
Pages 51-56

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From page 51...
... includes the following elements directly applicable to the mission of the Time and Frequency Division:11 • Develop an all-optical clock for more precise time and frequency measurement; • Develop quantum logic clocks capable of providing improved time and frequency for the next generation of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and for tests of fundamental physics theories; • Improve environmental conditions within NIST's Boulder, Colorado, research laboratories to enable production of the extremely accurate data needed by industry and academia and to support further progress in measurements related to high-frequency electronics, advanced materials characterized at the atomic level, subcellular forces, timing accuracy, and other areas; and • Make precision frequency measurements above 100 GHz (100 billion cycles per second)
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From page 52...
... NIST provides an array of services to a very broad user community in the United States: the NIST Internet Time Service is used more than 2.5 billion times every day; NIST radio station WWVB is widely used to synchronize commercial timekeeping devices to NIST time; the NIST Automated Computer Time Service helps industry meet Securities and Exchange Commission requirements to synchronize the time-stamping of hundreds of billions of dollars of electronic financial transactions to NIST time. The following international projects are noted as excellent examples of building goodwill for the United States: • The NIST-led project of developing an international network of common view GPS receivers will enable time and frequency comparisons throughout the Inter-American Metrology System (SIM)
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From page 53...
... . ASSESSMENT OF THE DIVISION The division programs focus on four principal thrusts: • The realization of national and international time and frequency standards with the greatest accuracy and precision; • The dissemination of time and frequency through a wide variety of measurement services directed to customers at all levels, from industrial and research customers with the most stringent needs to the general public with less exacting needs; • Research on future time and frequency standards and dissemination methods; and • Quantum computing with trapped ions, which evolved directly from research on new atomic clocks and which has become a major NIST-wide focus area.
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From page 54...
... In the area of quantum information processing: • NIST has the sole technology to demonstrate all seven DiVincenzo criteria for scalable quantum computing. • NIST has demonstrated the first of each of the following: single-atom quantum logic gate, deterministic entanglement, robust error correction, quantum teleportation of massive particles, and quantum Fourier transforms.
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From page 55...
... ; • Perform research and development for the future generations of time and frequency standards, measurement services, and distribution systems; and • Perform research on quantum information processing, in support of NIST wide goals and to improve time and frequency standards. The division shows a high level of achievement of these objectives, as demonstrated by the following: • The best realization in the world of the SI second; • Web clock supporting 2.5 billion hits per day; • Widely used radio station transmissions and time measurement and analysis services, extended to the international community; • Unique phase noise measurement capability, extending to 800 GHz; • Research in ion and cold atomic clocks with unprecedented precision and 12 UTC(NIST)
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From page 56...
... In the meantime, NIST should ensure that projects to repair and improve electric power and other utilities at the NIST Boulder site are effectively prioritized and completed on time and to specification. The impacts of increasing administrative burdens, poor facilities, and other distractions are severe enough that highly productive and skilled scientists within the division are looking for opportunities outside NIST.
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Key Terms

  • frequency division
  • measurement services
  • nist time
  • time scale
  • time service

  • fractional frequency
  • laser frequency
  • nist boulder
  • quantum information
  • phase noise

  • administrative issues
  • frequency measurement
  • internet time
  • frequency uncertainty
  • nist radio

  • network time
  • international time
  • frequency measurements
  • precision frequency
  • frequency combs

  • time measurement
  • information processing
  • femtosecond laser
  • radio station
  • significant concern

  • radio stations
  • administrative burdens
  • logic clock
  • quantum logic
  • domestic scientists


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