(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- In what may prove to be a major development for scientists in fields ranging from forensics to quantum communications, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new, highly sensitive, low-cost technique for measuring light in the near-infrared (NIR) range. The technique can measure the spectrum of the specific wavelengths of NIR light used widely in telecommunications as well as the very weak infrared (IR) light at single-photon levels given off by fragile biomaterials and nanomaterials. They described their results in a recent issue of Optics Express.*

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