Nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or nitrous, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula . At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, with a slight metallic scent and taste. At elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidizer similar to molecular oxygen. It is soluble in water. Nitrous oxide has significant medical uses, especially in surgery and dentistry, for its anaesthetic and pain reducing effects. Its name "laughing gas", coined by Humphry Davy, is due to the euphoric effects upon inhaling it, a property that has led to its recreational
Equivalent oxide thickness oxide dielectric, as: Equivalent oxide thickness An Equivalent oxide thickness is a distance, usually given in nanometers (nm), which indicates how thick a silicon oxide film would need to be to produce the same effect as the high-κ material being used. The term is often used when describing field effect transistors which rely on an electrically insulating pad of material between a gate and a doped semiconducting region. Device performance has typically been improved by reducing the thickness of a silicon oxide insulating pad. As the thickness approached 5–10 nm, leakage became a problem and alternate materials were necessary to