Week+of+4-29-2013

5-1-2013 I came in today and began scanning a sample of C-60 on gold. It was prepped with a 1 second drop cast with supersaturated n-pentane AX-3718.14 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. This image is quite intriguing. There is a very clear C-60 monolayer present in this image, which I think is best displayed in the upper left quadrant. The molecular structure is not easily understood from this image because of the scale and the lack of definition given by that scale. I decided to scan it again to try to get a better look at it and to get a feel for the amount of drift that I would be experiencing. AY-3718.14 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. For the most part, the drift was not too bad. It drifted only a bit up and to the right. I zoomed into the upper middle. AZ-1000 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. This image almost definitely has a double tip scanning it. I decided to scan it again but in the middle of the next scan there was a drastic tip change. BA-3718.14 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. The tip was drifting out of the z-range so I stopped the scan, fixed it, and scanned this area again. BB-3718.14 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. This image shows a drastic decrease in the tip quality from the tip change in the middle of the scan taken shortly before this. This image and the following two images are mostly nonsense caused by streaks from the tip dragging across the surface since it is of such low quality. BC-3718.14 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. BD-3718.14 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. I utilized the pulse function then retracted it using fast out. The pulse function effectively crashes the tip into the surface, forcing it to change. I re-approached afterwards. BE-1000 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. The tip seems to have changed again, but this time for the better. The C-60 molecules are incredibly abundant in this image though they are not very well defined at all. I decided to scan the same area in hopes of getting a better look at it. BF-1000 Å,32 A/D, 300 ms/line. Unfortunately there was not really any improvement in the image quality in the second image, though it was of the same area as the previous image. I decided to heat the sample up after. I heated it for two seconds then let it cool for a few minutes. BG-3718.14 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. I zoomed in to the middle to find previous area. It was quite encouraging that I could find the same general region after heating up the sample. BH-1000 Å, 32 A/D, 300 ms/line. After staring at both this image and at BE, it is hard to say for certain but I think it is safe to say that this image is indeed of the same area as the one in BE. It does not appear that anything of note has drastically changed between the images though. Furthermore, the lack of serious definition makes it difficult for me to make any serious analysis of any changes as the features' qualities can not be adequately ascertained from this image.