Acronyms & Abbreviations from the NIST Website

NIST - RF CafeHere is a convenient reproduction of the list of acronyms and abbreviations from the NIST website. It contains a lot of terms that are specific to the work they do along with commonly used terms. With the well-known propensity the government has for generating creative acronyms, this will help to decipher their clever schemes.

This list is provided as a reference for the NIST Physics Laboratory's Technical Activities publication. It is not intended as a comprehensive list in the area of physics.

A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   X   Y   Z

 

Return to top   Numeric
4WM Four Wave Mixing

 

Return to top   A
AAMI Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation
AAPM American Association of Physicists in Medicine
ACR (ACRii) Absolute Cryogenic Radiometer (second upgrade)
ACS American Chemical Society
ACTS Automated Computer Time Service
ADCL Accredited Dosimetry Calibration Laboratory
ADMIT Analytical Detection Methods for the Irradiation Treatment of foods
AECL Atomic Energy Canada Limited
AEDC Arnold Engineering Development Center
AFB Air Force Base
AFGL Air Force Geophysics Laboratory
AFM Atomic Force Microscope
AFOSR Air Force Office of Scientific Research
AFPL Air Force Phillips Laboratory
AFRRI Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute
AI Associative Ionization
AIAA American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics
AIGER American Industry Government Emissions Research Consortium
AIP American Institute of Physics
ALG Advanced Lithography Group
AM amplitude modulation
AM1 First Launch in the morning series of EOS platforms
AMMAC Mexican Metrology Association
AMO Atomic, Molecular and Optical
AMS Accelerator-Mass Spectrometry
ANS American Nuclear Society
ANSI American National Standards Institute
ANSOM Apertureless Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy
ANVIS Aviator Night Vision Imaging System
APAS Astrophysical, Planetary and Atmospheric Sciences
APHIS Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
APOMA American Precision Optics Manufacturers Association
APRF Army Pulse Radiation Facility
APS American Physical Society or Advanced Photon Source
APT Annular Proton Telescope
ARO Army Research Office
ARPES Angle Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy
ART Algebraic Reconstruction Technique
ASCA Advanced Satellite for Cosmology & Astrophysics
ASCA Japan-NASA X-ray Satellite
ASME American Society for Mechanical Engineers
ASSI Airglow Solar Spectrometer Instrument
ASTER Advance Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer
ASET Association of Super-advanced Electronics Technologies
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
AT&T Atlantic Telephone & Telegraph
ATD Above-Threshold Dissociation
ATI Above-Threshold Ionization
ATLAS Atmospheric Laboratory for Applications and Science
ATP Advanced Technology Program
ATW Accelerator Transmutation of Waste
AURA Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
AXAF Advanced X-ray Astrophysical Facility
AXAF-I Imaging Advanced X-ray Astrophysical Facility
AXAF-S Spectroscopy Advanced X-ray Astrophysical Facility

 

Return to top   B
BARC Bhabha Atomic Research Centre
BB Blackbody
BB Broad-bandwidth
BBIR Broad Band Infrared
BBO Beta-Barium Borate
BBXRT Broad-Band X-Ray Telescope
BCC Broadband Calibration Chamber
BCS Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory of superconductivity
BCS Bragg Crystal Spectrometer
BEB Binary-encounter-Bethe
BEC Bose-Einstein Condensation
BED Binary-encounter-dipole
BEEM Ballistic Electron Emission Spectroscopy
BEV Bundesamt für Eich- und Vermessungswesen, Vienna, Austria
BFRL Building & Fire Research Laboratory
BGSM Bowman Gray School of Medicine
BIB Blocked Impurity Band
BIFL Burst Integrated Fluorescence
BIPM Bureau International des Poids et Mesures
BL Beam Line at SURF-III
BMDO Ballistic Missile Defense Organization
BNL Brookhaven National Laboratory
BNM National Bureau of Metrology, France
BOMAB Bottle Manikin Absorber
BRAN Boulder Research and Administrative Network
BRDF Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function
BSDF Bidirectional Scattering Distribution Function
BSS Beta Secondary System
BSS.2 Beta-Particle Secondary Standards System
BTI Bubble Technology, Inc.
BWO Backward Wave Oscillator
BXR BMDO Transfer Radiometer

 

Return to top   C
CAD Computer Aided Design
CAM Computer Aided Machining
CAMOS Committee on Atomic, Molecular and Optical Sciences
CAO Carlsbad Area Office
CARB Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology
CARS Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy
CASS Calibration Accuracy Support System
CAST Council of Agricultural Science and Technology
CBNM Central Bureau for Nuclear Measurements
CCD Charged Coupled Device
CCDM Consultative Committee for the Definition of the Meter
CCDS Consultative Committee for the Definition of the Second
CCE Consultative Committee on Electricity
CCEMRI Consultative Committee for Ionizing Radiations, CIPM
CCG Calibration Coordination Group
CCP6 Collaborative Computational Project 6
CCPR Consultative Committee on Photometry and Radiometry
CCRI Comité Consultatif des Rayonnements Ionisants
CCTF Consultative Committee for Time and Frequency
CDRH Center for Devices and Radiological Health
CEL Correlated Emission Laser
CEMRC Carlsbad Environmental Monitoring Research Center
CERES Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy System
CFS Constant-Final-State Spectroscopy
CHEM-1 Chemistry
CIAQ Committee on Indoor Air Quality
CIE Commission Internationale De L'Éclairage
CIPM International Committee of Weights and Measures, France
CIRMS Council on Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards
CIRRPC Committee on Interagency Radiation Research and Policy Coordination
CIS Constant-Initial-State Spectroscopy
CMC Calibration Measurement Capabilities
CMR Colossal Magnetoresistance
CNIF Californium Neutron Irradiation Facility
CNRF Cold Neutron Research Facility
CODATA Committee on Data for Science and Technology
CORM Council for Optical Radiation Measurements
COSPAR Committee on Space Research
CPIC International Physics Center, Elba
CPT conjugation, parity, and time
CPU Central Processing Unit
CR Cascaded Rectifier Accelerator
CRADA Cooperative Research and Development Agreement
CRCPD Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors
CRDS Cavity-Ring-Down Spectroscopy
CRI Cambridge Research Instrumentation
CRP Coordinated Research Program
CRT Cathode Ray Tube
CRYRING Electron Accelerator and Storage Ring Facility (Stockholm, Sweden)
CSDA Continuous-Slowing-Down Approximation
CSEWG Cross Section Evaluation Working Group
CSI Compton Scatter Imaging
CSIC Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas
CSIR Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
CSTL Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory
CT Computed Tomographic
CTI Critical Technologies Institute
CU University of Colorado
CVD Chemical Vapor Deposition
cw (CW) continuous wave
CXRO Center for X-Ray Optics at Berkeley, CA
CY Calendar Year

 

Return to top   D
DARPA Defense Advanced Research Project Agency
DEC Digital Electronics Corporation
DMA Defense Mapping Agency
DNA Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid or Defense Nuclear Agency
DOC (DoC) Department of Commerce
DOD (DoD) Department of Defense
DOE (DoE) Department of Energy
DOELAP Department of Energy Laboratory Accreditation Program
DORT Discrete Ordinates Code
DPPC dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine
DRAM Dynamic Random Access Memory
DRIP Detector Response Intercomparison Program
DR-SFG Doubly Resonant Sum Frequency Generation
DSA Digital Subtraction Angiography
DSC differential scattering cross section
DVM Digital Voltmeter
DUV Deep Ultraviolet

 

Return to top   E
EBIS Electron Beam Ion Source
EBIT Electron Beam Ion Trap
ec electron-capture
ECP Effective Core Potential
ECPR Electrically-Calibrated Pyroelectric Radiometer
ECR Electron Cyclotron Resonance
ECRIS Electron-Cyclotron-Resonance Ion Source
ECS Energy-Corrected-Sudden
ECSED Electronic Commerce in Scientific and Engineering Data
EDX Energy-Dispersive X-ray Analysis
EEEL Electronics & Electrical Engineering Laboratory
EELS Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy
EEO Equal Employment Opportunity
EEP Einstein Equivalence Principle
EM Environmental Management
ENEA Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie, L'Energia E L'Ambiente
ENDF Evaluated Nuclear Data File
ENDL Evaluated Nuclear Data Library
ENSDF Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File
EOM Electro-Optic Modulator
EOS Earth Observing System
EPA Environmental Protection Agency
EPIC Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera
ERATO Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology Office
EROS Electric Resonance Optothermal Spectrometer
ESA European Space Agency
ESB Electrical Substitution Bolometer
ESDIAD Electron-Stimulated Desorption Ion Angular Distributions
ESO European Southern Observatory
ESR Experimental Storage Ring or Electrical Substitution Radiometer
ESR Electron Spin Resonance (EPR now preferred)
ETI Environmental Technology Initiative
ETRAN Monte Carlo computer code for Electrons and Photons through Extended Media
EURADOS European Radiation Dosimetry Group
EURATOM European Nuclear Energy Organization
EUROMET A European collaboration in measurement standards
EUV Extreme Ultraviolet
EUVE Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer
EUVL-LLC EUV Lithography - Limited Liability Corporation
EXAFS Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure

 

Return to top   F
FAA Federal Aviation Administration
FACSS Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies
FAD FASCAL Absolute Detector
FARCAL Facility for Advanced Radiometric Calibrations
FASCAL Facility for Automatic Spectroradiometric Calibrations
FCCSET Federal Coordinating Council Science, Engineering and Technology
FCDC Fundamental Constants Data Center
FCPM Fundamental Constants and Precision Measurements
FDA U.S. Food and Drug Administration
FEA Field-Emitter Array
FED Field-Emitter Display
FEL Free Electron Laser
FEMA Federal Emergency Management Agency
FET Field Effect Transistor
FIMS Fissionable Isotope Mass Standards
FIR Far Infrared
FLIR Forward Looking Infrared Radiometer
FM Frequency Modulation
FNR Ford Nuclear Reactor
FOS Faint Object Spectrograph
FOV Field of View
FPC Fullerene Production Chamber
FR Filtered Radiometer
FRET Fluorescence Resonant Energy Transfer
FT Fourier Transform
FT-IRAS Fourier Transform-Infrared Reflection Absorption Spectroscopy
FTIR Fourier Transform Infrared
FTMS Fourier Transform Microwave Spectroscopy
FTMW Fourier Transform Microwave
FTS Fourier Transform Spectroscopy
FUSE Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer
FUV Far Ultraviolet
FWHM Full Width at Half Maximum
FY Fiscal Year

 

Return to top   G
GAMS 4 (GAMS4) NIST High Resolution Spectrometer
GDRIMS Glow-Discharge Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometry
GEC Gaseous Electronics Conference
GFP Green Fluorescent Protein
GHRS Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph
GIM Grazing-Incidence Monochromator
GINGA Japanese X-ray Satellite
GMR Giant Magnetoresistance
GOES Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite
GPIB General Purpose Instrumentation Bus
GPS Global Positioning System
GRI Gas Research Institute
GRT Germanium Resistance Thermometer
GSFC Goddard Space Flight Center
GSI Gessellschaft für Schwerionenforschung
GVHD Graft-Versus Host Disease

 

Return to top   H
HACR High Accuracy Cryogenic Radiometer
HALO Hypersonic Aircraft Launch Option
HBM Hybrid Bilayer Membrane
HCCD Mono-deuterated Acetylene
HDR High Dose Rate
HECT High-Energy Computed Tomography
HFIR High Flux Isotope Reactor
HID High Intensity Discharge
HIRDLS High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder
HPGe High Purity Germanium
HPLC High Pressure Liquid Chromatographic
HPS Health Physics Society
HPSSC Health Physics Society Standards Committee
HR3DCT High Resolution 3-D Computed Tomography
HRTS High Resolution Telescope Spectrograph
HSST Heavy Section Steel Technology
HST Hubble Space Telescope
HTBB High-Temperature Black Body
HTD Heat Transfer Division
HTS High-Temperature Superconductivity
HUT Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope
HVL Half-Value Layer

 

Return to top   I
IAEA International Atomic Energy Agency
IAG International Association of Gravity
IAU International Astronomical Union
IC Integrated Circuit
ICAMDATA International Conference on Atomic and Molecular Data
ICP Inductively Coupled Plasma
ICPEAC International Conference on the Physics of Electronic and Atomic Collisions
ICRM International Committee for Radionuclide Metrology
ICRP International Commission on Radiological Protection
ICRU International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements
ID (id or i.d.) inside diameter
IDMS Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IEEE Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IEN Istituto Elettrotecnico Nazionale (Italy)
IES Illumination Engineering Society
IESNA Illumination Engineering Society of North America
IGC International Gravity Commission
IHPRPTP Integrated High Payoff Rocket Propulsion Technology Program
ILL Institut Laue Langevin
ILS International Laser Spectroscopy
IMECE International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition
IMGC Istituto di Metrologia "G. Colonnetti" (Italy)
IMS Institute for Molecular Science
INDC International Nuclear Data Committee
INISO-TTC Experimental Radiochromic Film
INM Institute National de Metrologie
INMM Institute for Nuclear Materials Management
INMRI-ENEA Istituto Nazionale di Metrologia delle Radiazioni Ionizzanti - Ente per le Nuove Tecnologie
IPNS Intense Pulsed Neutron Source
IPSN L'Institut de Protection et de Sûreté Nucléaire
IPTS International Practical Temperature Scale
IQEC International Quantum Electronics Conference
IQI Image Quality Indicators
IR Infrared
IRAS Infrared Astronomical Satellite or Infrared Reflection Absorption Spectroscopy
IRB Institutional Review Board
IRDCF Infrared Detector Calibration Facility
IRMM Institute of Reference Materials and Measurements
ISCC Inter-Society Color Council
ISO International Organization for Standardization
ISP International Specialty Products
ISCC Information System to Support Calibrations
ISS International Space Station
ISSI International Space Science Institute (Bern, Switzerland)
ITAMP International Meeting of Theory of Atomic and Molecular Physics
ITL Information Technology Laboratory
ITEP Institute for Theoretical and Experimental Physics
ITER International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
ITS International Temperature Scale
ITU International Telecommunication Union
IUCr International Union of Crystallography
IUE International Ultraviolet Explorer
IVBT Intravascular Brachytherapy
IVR Intramolecular Vibrational Relaxation
IVR Intramolecular Vibrational Redistribution
IWG Investigators Working Group

 

Return to top   K
KCDB Key Comparison and Calibration Database

 

Return to top   J
JAERI Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute
JANNAF Joint Army-Navy-NASA-Air Force
JCCRER U.S.-Russia Joint Coordinating Committee on Radiation Effects Research
JCGM Joint Committee for Guides on Metrology
JCMT James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
JET Joint European Torus
JILA formerly Joint Institute Laboratory for Astrophysics
JEOL JEOL USA, Inc.
JPL Jet Propulsion Laboratory

 

Return to top   L
LAGOS Laser Gravitational-Wave Observatory in Space
LAMPF Los Alamos Meson Physics Facility
LAMSCAL Large Area Monochromatic Source for Calibrations
LANL Los Alamos National Laboratory
LANSCE Los Alamos Neutron Scattering Center
LASP Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado
LBIR Low Background Infrared Radiometry
LBL Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
LBRS Low Background Reference System
LCD Liquid Crystal Display
LCIF Laser-Collision-Induced Fluorescence
LED Light Emitting Diode
LEED Low Energy Electron Diffraction
LEI Laser-Enhanced Ionization
LET Linear Energy Transfer
LF Low Frequency
LIF Laser Induced Fluorescence
LIGO Laser Interferometric Gravitational-Wave Observatory
LISA Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LMR Laser Magnetic Resonance
LMRI Laboratoire de Mesure des Rayonnements Ionisants (France)
LO Laser Optics
LOA Letter of Authorization
LORAN-C A Radio Navigation System Operated by the U.S. Coast Guard
LPM Light-Particle Monitor
LPRI Laboratoire Primaire des Rayonnements Ionisants, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
LPRT Light-Pipe Radiation Thermometers
LPTF Laboratoire Primaire du Temps et des Fréquencies
LS Liquid Scintillation
LSC Liquid Scintillation Counting
LTE Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium
LT Low-Temperature
LTEC Lamp Testing Engineers Conference
LTG Low-Temperature Growth
LVIS Low Velocity Intense Source
LWIR Long Wave Infrared

 

Return to top   M
MARLAP Multi-Agency Radiological Laboratory Procedures
MARS Multiple-Angle Reference System
MBE Molecular Beam Epitaxy
MBIR Medium Background Infrared Facility
MBOS Molecular-Beam Optothermal Spectrometer
MCNP Monte Carlo Neutron Photon (computer code)
MCQDT Multi Channel Quantum Defect Theory
MCT Mercury-cadmium-telluride
MCU Mobile Calibration Unit
MDRF Materials Dosimetry Reference Facility
MEA Materials Engineering Associates
MEA membrane electrode assembly
MEDEA Microelectronics Development for European Applications
MEIBEL Merged Electron-Ion Beam Energy Loss
MEL Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory
MEMS Micro Electro Mechanical Systems
MET Medium Energy Telescope
MEVVA Metal Vapor Vacuum Arc
MIDAS Modular Interactive Data Acquisition System
MIL Military
MIM Metal-Insulator-Metal (Diode)
MIRD Medical Internal Radiation Dose (committee)
MIRF Medical and Industrial Radiation Facility
MISR Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MJD Modified Julian Date
MMI Mallinckrodt Medical, Inc.
MOBY Marine Optical Buoy
MOCVD Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition
MODIL Manufacturing Operations Development & Integration Laboratory
MODIS Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectrometer
MOEMS Micro Optp Electro Mechanical Systems
MOKE Magneto-Optical Kerr Effect
MOPITT Measurement of Pollution In The Troposphere
MOS Marine Optical System or Marine Optical Spectrograph
MOSFET Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor
MOT Magneto Optical Trap
MQDT Multichannel Quantum Defect Theory
MPD Multiphoton Detector
MPI Multiphoton Ionization
MPP Multi-Pinned Phasing
MQA Measurement Quality Assurance
MQDT Multichannel Quantum Defect Theory
MQSA Mammography Quality Standards Act
MRA Mutual Recognition Arrangement
MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MRT Minimal Resolvable Temperature
MSEL Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory
MSX Midcourse Space Experiment
MTG Methanol To Gasoline
MURR University of Missouri Research Reactor
MW Microwave

 

Return to top   N
NAMP National Analytical Management Program
NAMT National Advanced Manufacturing Testbed
NAPM National Association of Photographic Manufacturers
NAS National Academy of Sciences
NAS/NRC National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council
NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NBS National Bureau of Standards, now NIST
NBS-4 Older Primary Frequency Standard (retains the NBS name)
NBS-6 Previous Primary Frequency Standard (retains the NBS name)
NBSR National Bureau of Standards' Reactor (retains the NBS name)
NCAR National Center for Atmospheric Research
NCI National Cancer Institute
NCNR NIST Center for Neutron Research
NCRP National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements
NCSCANS National Steering Committee for the Advanced Neutron Source
NCSL National Conference of Standards Laboratories
ND Neutron Density
NDT Nondestructive Testing
Nd:YAG Neodymium: Yttrium-Aluminum-Garnet (YAG doped with Nd)
NEANDC Nuclear Energy Agency Nuclear Data Committee
NEANSC Nuclear Energy Agency Nuclear Science Committee
NEC Nippon Electric Corporation
NED Nuclear Effects Directorate
NEI Nuclear Energy Institute
NELAC National Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Conference
NEOS Newport Electro-Optic Systems
NERI Nuclear Energy Research Initiative
NESDIS National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service
NEWRAD New Radiometry
NG6, NG-6 Monochromatic Beam Line near the end of NG6
NG6M Neutron Guide No. 6
NG7 Neutron Guide No. 7
NGS National Geological Society
NICE-OHMS Noise-Immune Cavity Enhanced Optical Heterodyne Molecular Spectroscopy
NI&D Nuclear Interactions and Dosimetry
NIDR National Institute of Dental Research
NIF National Ignition Facility
NIH National Institutes of Health
NIM Normal-Incidence Monochromator or National Instrumentation Methods
NIOF Neutron Interferometry and Optics Facility
NIPDE National Initiative for Product Data Exchange
NIR Near Infrared
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
NIST-7 Former NIST Primary Frequency Standard
NIST-F1 Current NIST Primary Frequency Standard
NISTAR NIST Advanced Radiometer
NMI National Metrology Institute or National Measurement Institute
NML National Measurement Laboratory (Japan)
NMR Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
NMS Natural Matrix Standard
NOAA National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAO National Optical Astronomy Observatory
NOBCChE National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers
NORA Non-Overlapping Redundant Array
NORAMET A North American regional collaboration in national measurement standards and services
NPL National Physical Laboratory (U.K.)
NPOESS National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite
NPSS Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society
NRC National Research Council
NRC Nuclear Regulatory Commission
NRCC National Research Council Canada
NREL National Renewable Energy Laboratory
NRIP NIST Radiochemistry Intercomparison Program
NRL Naval Research Laboratory
NRLM National Research Laboratory of Metrology (Japan)
NRRS Near Resonance Rayleigh Scattering
NSA National Security Agency
NSBP National Society of Black Physicists
NSCANS National Steering Committee for the Advanced Neutron Source
NSF National Science Foundation
NSLS National Synchrotron Light Source, Brookhaven National Laboratory
NSOM Near-Field Scanning Optical Microscopy
NTSB National Transportation Safety Board
NVIS Night Vision Imaging System
NVLAP National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program

 

Return to top   O
OAI Optical Associates, Inc.
OCLI Optical Cooling Laboratory Incorporated
OD Optical Density
OE Optical Engineering
OFS Österreichisches Forschungszentrum
OIML International Organization of Legal Metrology
OMEGA 24-Beam Laser Facility at Rochester
OMH National Office of Measures (Hungary)
ONR Office of Naval Research
OPA Optical Parametric Amplifier
OPO Optical Parametric Oscillator
OPTCON International conference sponsored by 3 agencies: Optical Society of America; Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers; and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ORM Office of Radiation Measurement
ORELA Oak Ridge Electron Linear Accelerator
ORNL Oak Ridge National Laboratory
OSA Optical Society of America
OSL Optical Stimulated Luminescence
OSRD Office of Standard Reference Data
OSTP Office of Science and Technology Policy
OTD Optical Technology Division

 

Return to top   P
PA Proton Affinity
PADE Parallel Applications Development Environment
PARCS Primary Atomic Reference Clock in SPACE
PC Personal Computer
PCB polychlorinated biphenyl
PDC Parametric down-conversion
PDE Product Data Exchange
PDML Photovoltaic Device Measurement Laboratory
PE Performance Evaluation
PECVD Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition
PEM polymer-electrolyte-membrane
PES Photoelectron Spectroscopy
PET Positron Emission Tomography
PFID Perturbed Free Induction Decay
PID Proportional, Integral, and Derivative
PIXE Particle Induced X-ray Emission
PL Physics Laboratory
PM phase modulation
PMG Precision Measurement Grant
PMMA polymethylmethacrylate
PMS Particle Measurement System
PMT Photomultiplier Tube
PNL Pacific Northwest Laboratory
PNNL Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
PNR Polarized Neutron Reflectivity
POC Physical Optics Corporation
POP Plasma Oscillation Probe
POPA Panel on Public Affairs of American Physical Society
PREP Professional Research Experience Program
PRF Petroleum Research Fund
PRL Physical Review Letters
PRM Precision Radiation Measurement
PS Polystyrene
PSD Photon-Stimulated Desorption
PSL Polystyrene-latex
PT Performance Testing
PTB Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Germany)
PTCA Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty
PTFE Polytetrafluoroethylene
PTI Proxima Therapeutics, Inc.
PUD Paired Uranium Detector
PWR Pressurized-Water Reactor
PWS Primary Working Standard
PZT Piezoelectric Transducer

 

Return to top   Q
QA/QC Quality Assurance/Quality Control
QCD Quantum Chromodynamics
QED Quantum Electrodynamics
QELS Quantum Electronics and Laser Science
QFT Quantum Field Theory
QMD Quantum Metrology Division
QNLC quenched narrow-line laser cooling
QPD Quantum Physics Division

 

Return to top   R
RAC Research Advisory Committee
R&D Research & Development
RBE Relative Biological Efficiency
RBS Rutherford Backscattering
RDP Rubidium Di-Hydrogen Phosphate
REDA Resonant-Excitation-Double-Autoionization
REI Rad Elec, Inc.
RESL Radiological and Environmental Science Laboratory
RF (rf) Radio Frequency
RHEED Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction
RIMS Resonance Ionization Mass Spectrometry
RKR Rydberg-Klein-Rees
RNA Ribonucleic Acid
ROSAT Roentgensatellit
ROSPEC Rotating Spectrometer for Neutrons
RS-232 An IEEE Standard Bus
RTC Radiochromic Film Task Group
RTP Rapid Thermal Processing

 

Return to top   S
SACR Space-based Active Cavity Radiometer
SAM Self-Assembled Monolayer
SANS Small-Angle Neutron Scattering
SBIR Small Business Innovation Research
SCAMPY Scanning Micro Pyrometer
SCATMECH Consortium of 14 U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturers
SCC Standards Coordinating Committee or Spectral Calibration Chamber
SCF Spectral Comparator Facility
SCLIR Secondary Calibration Laboratories for Ionizing Radiation
SDI Strategic Defense Initiative
SDIO Strategic Defense Initiative Organization
SDL Space Dynamics Laboratory
SEAWIFS (SeaWiFS) Sea-Viewing of Wide Field Sensor
SEBA Standards' Employees Benefit Association
SEM Scanning Electron Microscope
SEMATECH Consortium of 14 U.S. Semiconductor Manufacturers
SEMPA Scanning Electron Microscopy with Polarization Analysis
SFA Sachs Freeman and Associates
SFCP Special Foreign Currency Program
SFG Sum Frequency Generation
SI Système International d' Unités or International System of Units
SIA Semiconductor Industry Association
SID Society for Information Display
SIMS Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry
SIRCUS Spectral Irradiance and Radiance Calibration with Uniform Sources
SIRREX-3 SeaWiFS Intercalibration Round-Robin Experiment
SKACR Superconducting Kinetic-inductance Absolute Cryogenic Radiometer
SLM Synthetic Layer Microstructure
SME Solar Mesosphere Explorer
SM Single Molecule
SNOM Scanning Near Field Optical Microscope
SOG Spin-on Glass
SOLSPEC Solar Spectrometer
SOLSTICE Solar Stellar Irradiance Comparison Experiment
SPIE Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers
SPP Storage Photostimulable Phosphor
SQL Structured Query Language
SRAM Static Random Access Memory
SRDP Standard Reference Data Program
SRM Standard Reference Material
SSBUV Shuttle Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet
SSC Superconductor Super Collider
SSDL Secondary Standard Dosimetry
SSPM Solid State Photomultipliers
SSRCR State Suggested Regulations for Controlling Ionizing Radiations
SSTR Solid State Track Recorder
SSUV Shuttle Solar Ultraviolet
STARR Spectral Tri-function Automated Reference Reflectometer
STD Standard
STM Scanning Tunneling Microscope
STP Standard Temperature Pressure
STScI Space Telescope Science Institute
SUNY State University of New York
SURF Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program
SURF-III (SURF II) The NIST Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility Electron Storage Ring
SUSIM Solar Ultraviolet Spectral Irradiance Monitor
SVGL Silicon Valley Group Lithography
SWIXR Short Wave Infrared Transfer Radiometer
SWIR Short Wave Infrared
SXR SeaWiFS Transfer Radiometer

 

Return to top   T
TAG Technical Advisory Group
TAI International Atomic Time
TAMOC Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics Community
TASSII Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Investigation
TC Technical Committee
TCAP Time-Correlated Associated Particle
TDCR Triple-to-Double Coincidence Ratio
TEPC Tissue Equivalent Proportional Counter
TEXT Texas Experimental Tokamak
TFTC Thin-Film Thermocouple
TFWM transient four-wave-mixing
TGM Toroidal-Grating Monochromator
TIMED Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics
TLC Thin Layer Chromatography
TLD Thermoluminescent Detector
TMA Tri-methyl-aluminum
TOF Time-of-Flight Spectrometer
TOMS Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer
TOP Time-Orbiting-Potential Trap
TPB Tetraphenyl Butadiene
TPD Temperature Programmed Desorption
TQM Total Quality Management
TRIGA Training, Research and Isotope Reactor, General Atomics
TRU Transuranic
TuFIR Tunable Far Infrared (Radiation)
TXR Thermal-infrared Transfer Radiometer

 

Return to top   U
UA University of Arizona
UARS Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite
UCN Ultra Cold Neutron
UDC University of the District of Columbia
UHV Ultrahigh Vacuum
UK (U.K.) United Kingdom
UPS Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy
URL Uniform Resource Locator
US United States
USA United States of America
USAIDR U.S. Army Institute of Dental Research
USCEA U.S. Council for Energy Awareness
USDA U.S. Department of Agriculture
USFDA U.S. Food and Drug Administration
USGCRP United States Global Change Research Program
USNA U.S. Naval Academy
USNC United States National Committee
USNO U.S. Naval Observatory
USSR Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
UTC Coordinated Universal Time
UV Ultraviolet
UV-B (UVB) Ultraviolet-B

 

Return to top   V
VCO Voltage-Controlled Oscillator
VCSEL Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser
VDG Van de Graaff
VEEL Vibrational and Electronic Energy Levels
VET Vibration Energy Transfer
VIS Visible
VLA Very Large Array
VLBI Very Long Baseline Interferometer (or Interferometry)
VNIIFTRI National Scientific and Russian Research Institute for Physical, Technical and Radiotechnical Measurements
VNIIM Mendeleyev Institute of Metrology
VNIIOF All-Union Research Institute for Optical and Physical Measurements
VR Vibrationally Resonant
VRML Virtual Reality Markup Language
VR-SFG Vibrationally Resonant Sum-frequency Generation
VUV Vacuum Ultraviolet
VXR Visible Transfer Radiometer

 

Return to top   W
WAFAC Wide-Angle Free-Air Chamber
WERB Washington Editorial Review Board
WG Working Group
WHC Washington Hospital Center
WHO World Health Organization
WIPP Waste Isolation Pilot Plant
WISE Women in Science and Engineering
WKB Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin
4WM Four Wave Mixing
WMO World Metrological Organization
WPMA Working Party on Measurement Activities
WSTC Westinghouse Science and Technology Center
WWV Call letters for NIST short-wave radio station in Colorado
WWVB Call letters for NIST lf radio station in Colorado
WWVH Call letters for NIST short-wave radio station in Hawaii
WWW (www) World Wide Web
WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get

 

Return to top   X
XANES X-ray Absorption Near-Edge Structure
XPS X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy
XROI X-Ray Optical Interferometer
XSW X-ray Standing Wave
XTE/PCA X-ray Timing Explorer/Proportional Counter Array
XUV Extreme Ultraviolet

 

Return to top   Y
YAEL Yankee Atomic Environmental Laboratory
YAG Yttrium-Aluminum-Garnet
Yb:YAG Ytterbium: Yttrium-Aluminum-Garnet (YAG doped with Yb)
YBCO Yttrium-Barium-Cuprate