February+2008-DH

Notes STM Logbbok Main Page
=February 2008=

- set up the STM --> demonstrate that I know the components of the system || Saturday --> went to Quark Net and took a look at Truxene on Gold
 * || ===Week of Feb 4 to Feb 8=== ||
 * Monday || -put together a ppt with the graphite images, uploaded the ppt to slideshare and uploaded to notes
 * Tuesday || - tech difficulties with wiki ||
 * Wednesday || - went to the lab and take a look at truxene
 * had problems with the system reading truxene
 * eventually I got an image
 * I had a double tip
 * due to the double tip I believe those images are not a 100% reliable ||
 * Thursday || - analyze truxene shape and the pattern that it forms in gold ||
 * Friday || - work on ppt ||

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 * || ===Week of Feb 11 to Feb 15=== ||
 * Monday || Went to AR's lab and take a look at Truxene on Gold
 * Tuesday || updated my notes ||
 * Wednesday || Quark Net and looked at the same sample as monday ||
 * Thursday || ||
 * Friday || talk as a class about the CERN trip ||

- Made a sample - this gave us the idea that conditions under which the STM works are crucial for the imaging. Here are some differences between: >> - it is in a room by itself = surrounded by four tough walls- it is on a heavy table hard to move and with hydrolics as for it to be balanced Therefore we need to be extra careful with the portable since it is more sensible to the surroundings. || Saturday --> tried to look at a sample but kept crashing Talked about abstract and how to get started - read articles by grad students an their past experience with STM || - completed a rough draft of my abstract || «Previous Month--Next Month»
 * || ===Week of Feb 18 to Feb 22=== ||
 * Monday || went to lab and looked at Truxene and Octanethiol
 * I learned how to change tips in AR' s scope
 * got blurry images
 * figure how to use AR's scope
 * feedfack
 * x- slope
 * y-slope
 * P-gain
 * Z- gain
 * compare the STm with the portable STM ||
 * Tuesday || - Looked at Truxene and octanethiol on gold * had a double tip but got nice images where you could see octanethiol pits and the usual pattern of octanethiol
 * saw terraces of gold cover by octanethiol
 * saw white dots that could potentially be truxene but need to be examined
 * got a gold substrate
 * cut it in four --> tossed the worst out
 * Anneal with Hydrogen flame ( Y//ou have a hose connected to a tank with H2 gas and striker. You make a torch out of the hydrogen gas that is coming out the tube lighting it with the striker.//) Anneal for 5 min to remove water vapor and other contaminants from the surface, any longer the mica will bubble and you will not get a flat surface.
 * Let it dry
 * Put in the oven at 69 C for about 15-24 hrs ( //oven should be about 70 C)//oven should be about 70 C) ||
 * Wednesday || - worked at the portable STM --> could not get an image --> as predicted Truxene is hard molecule to pick up --> the STM would approach and start scanning and lose the current almost instantly--> increasing the P gain was helpful to mantain the current for a longer perio of time but it was succesful for only one scan image which gave no detail.
 * AR's STM
 * it has a box with several layers of insulator as to protect it from any vibration
 * Portable STM
 * it is in a separated area
 * - it is in a flat table with nohing on but the STM set up
 * Thursday || looked at the images from the 19th || i ||
 * Friday || Talked about Science Fair ||
 * || ===Week of Feb 25 to Feb 29=== ||
 * Monday || - went to Lab but complications arose --> there seem to be some issues with the scope approahing and crashing repeated times --> there must be some wire problems (AR is going to troubleshot)
 * Tuesday || - crashed my tip 5 times
 * Wednesday || - write abstract and research plan ||
 * Thursday || -in class work = help Cosmic Ray project ||
 * Friday || - went over my final draft for Science Fair ||