Thickness-Dependent Drude Plasma Frequency in Transdimensional Plasmonic TiN.

Plasmonic transdimensional materials (TDMs), which are atomically thin metals of precisely controlled thickness, are expected to exhibit large tailorability and dynamic tunability of their optical response as well as strong light confinement and nonlocal effects. Using spectroscopic ellipsometry, we characterize the complex permittivity of ultrathin films of passivated plasmonic titanium nitride with thicknesses ranging from 1 to 10 nm. By measuring passivated TiN, we experimentally distinguish between the contributions of an oxide layer and thickness to the optical properties. A decrease in the Drude plasma frequency and increase in the damping in thinner films is observed due to spatial confinement. We explain the experimental trends using a nonlocal Drude dielectric response theory based on the Keldysh-Rytova (KR) potential that predicts the thickness-dependent optical properties caused by electron confinement in plasmonic TDMs. Our experimental findings are consistent with the KR model and demonstrate quantum-confinement-induced optical properties in plasmonic transdimensional TiN.

Understanding nanoscale structural distortions in Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 by utilizing X-ray nanodiffraction and clustering algorithm analysis.

Hard X-ray nanodiffraction provides a unique nondestructive technique to quantify local strain and structural inhomogeneities at nanometer length scales. However, sample mosaicity and phase separation can result in a complex diffraction pattern that can make it challenging to quantify nanoscale structural distortions. In this work, a k-means clustering algorithm was utilized to identify local maxima of intensity by partitioning diffraction data in a three-dimensional feature space of detector coordinates and intensity. This technique has been applied to X-ray nanodiffraction measurements of a patterned ferroelectric PbZr0.2Ti0.8O3 sample. The analysis reveals the presence of two phases in the sample with different lattice parameters. A highly heterogeneous distribution of lattice parameters with a variation of 0.02 Šwas also observed within one ferroelectric domain. This approach provides a nanoscale survey of subtle structural distortions as well as phase separation in ferroelectric domains in a patterned sample.

A study of RFID application impacts on medical safety.

With the international reform in medical management systems gaining ground worldwide, hospital management has gradually begun to shift its focus from providing expensive medical treatment to improving medical service quality and patient safety. In this study, we discuss the application of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and data integrating technology with the medical service, and examine whether or not this technology can enhance medical safety. We also discuss the possible benefits following the application of the RFID system. The findings show that the application of RFID to hospitals can actually generate benefits, which can be further divided into operational structure benefits, users' structure benefits, and organisational and environmental benefits. However, not all these benefits can achieve medical safety. Among them, only the operator and environmental benefits can play such roles. Nevertheless, the application of RFID can bring hospitals towards the integration of technology benefits and improved medical safety.