News of the Year

Within the scope of a joint project promoted by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), a new gear measurement standard has been developed at PTB. It embodies three different external and three different internal gears each, which are arranged on a ring having an outer diameter of approximately 2 m.

The determination of the activity of alpha emitters is on offer as one of PTB’s services again. The method, which had already been established previously, has now been further developed towards α-spectrometry under a defined solid angle. Thereby, two aims have been set which represent an increased metrological challenge: On the one hand, the activity should be disseminated with the smallest...

Modern methods of external radiation therapy
are aimed at selecting the irradiation parameters
in such a way that as large an effect as possible is
achieved in the tumor volume while the surrounding,
healthy tissue is optimally protected. This dose
conformity in the target volume becomes possible
only by the use of imaging procedures. The combination
of an irradiation system with an imaging
procedure –...

A few years ago, the spectral range between infrared radiation and microwaves was still called the “THz gap” in radiometry, because measuring techniques for frequencies around 1 THz were poorly developed. Then it became clear that THz radiation would gain in importance in process monitoring and safety engineering and PTB, with its THz Radiometry Working Group, decided to systematically develop the...

The three-dimensional distribution of electrons inside molecules was made visible for the first time at PTB’s electron storage ring Metrology Light Source (MLS) in Berlin-Adlershof by means of electron spectroscopy. For this purpose, molecules which were aligned on a metallic surface were irradiated with shortwave synchrotron radiation, and the angle and energy distribution of the electrons that...

At the Charité university hospital in Berlin on 12 June 2015, Prof. Dr. Johanna Wanka, Federal Minister of Education and Research, dedicated a magnetic particle imaging (MPI) device which is to be operated jointly by the Charité hospital and PTB. This device was funded with almost 4 million euros by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) within the Major Equipment Initiative programme. With the...

In 2015, PTB, together with other European metrology institutes, founded the “European Centre for Mathematics and Statistics in Metrology (MATHMET)”. Through joint research and joint service offers, guidelines and cooperation projects, this centre aims to create a European network which provides the best possible mathematical and statistical expertise to support and strengthen metrological...