Third+quarter+summary

The third quarter did not provide any unexpected or unbelievable results. There was interference every now and then, but they often turned out to be just the scope acting up and the disturbances were quelled by taking a short scanning break It did teach me, however, several new techniques for using the microscope, both on the computer and the physical head: - Using a third screw on the scan head to move it closer to the sample without moving side-to-side, as with the previous method - I became better at changing tips and approaching the tip to the surface - Several new ways to adjust scans and new benchmarks to help scans starting out

Interference examples:

The streaks here do not appear to be what we would expect from a typical exposure. These are from February 15, images AA, AB, and AC. This sample had been exposed overnight, from 6:00 p.m. the previous day to 3:45 the day of scanning. Usually, the expected results are small craters, approximately 0.5 microns across. These were all from 10 micron scans, with the top images being a full 10 microns across. These may be from the tips(s), the exposure, or just the day of scanning, a these were all taken within a few minutes of each other. However, the area in question moved along with the image moving, and was not static in a certain area.