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News from division 7

Golden spherical particles in an antique glass vial resting on a table, antique pharmacy equipment in the background

Innovative materials based on nanoscale and submicrometre particles are playing an increasingly important role in the development of new products across many fields. Applications range from battery electrodes to nanomedicine to quantum dots, which recently gained attention through the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2023 which was awarded for their discovery and synthesis...

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Metrology, fundamental research and applications in the spectral range of the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) and vacuum ultraviolet (VUV): For 40 years, PTB has been conducting research and measurements using synchrotron radiation as part of collaborations and services for science and industry. For the seventh time, PTB organised a workshop from 13 to 15 November 2023 under the umbrella of the...

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A new beamline for radiometry in the vacuum ultraviolet spectral range (VUVR) was successfully commissioned at the Metrology Light Source (MLS). By quickly redirecting the radiation to three different measuring stations, the availability for different measuring tasks is significantly increased...

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We introduced a novel approach involving low-rank matrix reconstruction, applied to the sub-diffraction technique of atomic force microscopy-based infrared spectroscopy (AFM-IR), thereby enabling highly efficient hyperspectral infrared nanoimaging. Its practical utility was demonstrated on Leishmania parasites as a realistic target of biological importance.

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The current generation of industrial semiconductor manufacturing uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation at a wavelength of 13.5 nm. For more than 25 years, PTB has been offering high-precision measurements of the reflection properties of optical elements at this wavelength, and has thus been significantly involved in the technology development...

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At the invitation of Division 7.5, the ISO Technical Committee (TC) 112 on Vacuum Technology met with its three working groups from 21-23 June 2023 at the Institute Berlin. The working groups deal with the topics of vacuum pumps, vacuum instrumentation and vacuum hardware.

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Rudolf-Jaeckel-Preis 2023 for Dr. Karl Jousten

Whether for the realization of the low-temperature scale or for processes in the semiconductor industry: Many applications in physics and technology use vacuum technology, and especially the possibility to measure even the smallest pressures precisely and traceably. For his fundamental work in the field of vacuum pressure measurement, Dr. Karl...

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On May 23, 2023 this year's QUNOM (Quantification of Uncertainties in Nano Optical Metrology) workshop welcomed participants from different European countries. It was hosted by the XUV group at the University of Twente and co-organized by Dr. Sebastian Heidenreich (PTB Working Group 8.43 Modelling and Simulation) and Dr. Victor Soltwisch (Working Group 7.14 EUV Nanometrology).

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The semiconductor industry needs metrology systems to characterize the dimensions of transistor structures in the nanometer range in a fast, non-destructive, and metrologically reliable manner. A major challenge here is the limitation of the resolution of the measurement systems by the wavelength of the radiation used. Therefore, the use of short-wavelength extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation is...

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The article "Calibration of the dual-mode auto-calibrating resistance thermometer with few-parts-per-million uncertainty" published in Measurement Science and Technology was awarded by IOP publishing with the "Outstanding Paper Award 2022" in the field of precision measurement. The paper by Dietmar Drung, Marco Kraus and Christian Krause describes the calibration method of PTB’s novel noise...

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At the international textile conference ADDITC 2022 held in Aachen in early December, the contribution "Thickness Gauging of Polymer Coatings on Knit Fabrics Using Fast Terahertz TDS" on the thickness measurements of polymer coatings on knitted fabrics by means of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy (TDS) was given the "Best Poster Award 2022".

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