Giant Hysteretic Single-Molecule Electric Polarisation Switching above Room Temperature.

Continual progress has been achieved in information technology through unrelenting miniaturisation of the single memory bit in integrated ferromagnetic, ferroelectric, optical, and related circuits. However, as miniaturisation approaches its theoretical limit, new memory materials are being sought. Herein, we report a unique material exhibiting single-molecule electric polarisation switching that can operate above room temperature.

Determination of Trace Elements in Sintered and Single-Crystal Silicon Carbide by Laser Ablation in Liquid Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry.

Laser ablation in liquid (LAL) sampling method transformed hard-to-digest materials to soluble particles, and thus allowed for smooth decomposition by acid digestion. LAL sampling is useful to generate nanoparticles from samples with less contamination. After acid digestion, trace elements in the LAL-sampled particles were analyzed by solution nebulization inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS).

Temporal changes of fractionation index caused by changes in the large size of ablated particles in laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry.

To elucidate mechanisms of elemental fractionation that are observed in laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, the relative intensities of 34 elements, each normalized by a Ca internal standard, were measured every minute during a 10-min laser ablation of an NIST 610 glass standard. Temporal changes in the fractionation index (FI) were obtained by dividing the relative intensity of every minute by that of the first minute. The particles generated by laser ablation were collected on a filter every minute, and they were observed using scanning electron microscopy to investigate changes in the large size of particles.