Soft-gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are galactic X-ray stars that emit numerous short-duration (about 0.1 s) bursts of hard X-rays during sporadic active periods. They are thought to be magnetars: strongly magnetized neutron stars with emissions powered by the dissipation of magnetic energy. Here we report the detection of a long (380 s) giant flare from SGR 1806-20, which was much more luminous than any previous transient event observed in our Galaxy. (In the first 0.2 s, the flare released as much energy as the Sun radiates in a quarter of a million years.) Its power can be explained by a catastrophic instability involving global crust failure and magnetic reconnection on a magnetar, with possible large-scale untwisting of magnetic field lines outside the star. From a great distance this event would appear to be a short-duration, hard-spectrum cosmic gamma-ray burst. At least a significant fraction of the mysterious short-duration gamma-ray bursts may therefore come from extragalactic magnetars.

Nitrogen implantation of Mo gate was used to fabricate MOS capacitors and CMOS transistors. Initial studies demonstrate that the work function of Mo is sensitive to nitrogen implantation energy. Mo with (110) orientation exhibits a high work function, making it suitable for bulk p-MOSFET gate electrodes. Nitrogen implantation can be used to lower the Mo work function, making it suitable for n-MOSFET gate electrodes. A gate work function reduction of 0.42 eV was achieved for the n-FETs on CMOS wafers. With further optimization, this single metal gate technology may potentially replace conventional poly-Si gate technology for CMOS and can also be used for multipletechnologies.

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