Week+of+1-31+and+2-1

1-31-12 I came in today and had to solder the wires connecting the piezo stack to its power supply box. Then, after that, I began scanning a sample of Octanethiol on Au(111) that Natalie prepared. The tip kept crashing So I brought the voltage down from 50.0 V to 45.0 V to see if that would change anything. After this, I finally got the STM to scan at 5:16. I zoomed in to the bottom middle patch of "AA". "AA" was undoubtedly blurry but since it was the only image I had gotten all day, I wanted to try to see if I could get anything out of it. It did indeed have a substantial amount of features also. During this next scan, about halfway through, the sample bottomed out. I immediately approached and within two steps it began scanning again. The area before looked quite similar to the area after, just moved up. This scan actually looked slightly better than the one before it bottomed out. I zoomed in to the bottom left corner of this image."AC" was incredibly blurry as I had predicted; I changed the tip after it. My next scan was incredibly blurry and after I went through that ordeal, it was time to leave. Today's conclusions: I will begin scanning again with 45.0 V until I face further problems and I shall adjust if the need arises. I believe that, somehow, the higher voltages are messing with the quality of the scan. 1-31-12AA media type="custom" key="12316586" This image showed a fairly high amount of hills. It looks as if the lack of definition could be resolved using different and better scanning parameters. However the top left corner's streaks shows clearly the noise caused by the poor tip. In the future, I will attempt to look for more signs like this before zooming in to images. 1-31-12AB media type="custom" key="12316590" The features in this image have very distinct and defined boundaries. The diagonal streaks that cross throughout the entire image are a product of high amounts of noise-- possibly from the electricity of the piezoelectric box or the P and I-gains. I need to start using these diagonal lines as a sign to change my scanning parameters or to change the tip. 1-31-12AC media type="custom" key="12316594" This image is incredibly undefined. The borders of the features are much less defined than before. The sand-like surface of this image does not appear to show any Octanethiol molecules either. Hopefully I will be able to prevent images like these at a much earlier stage

2-1-12 I tried turning on the Piezoelectric Box when I came in and it would not work. I checked the voltages of the batteries.
 * Battery || Volts ||
 * 1 || 5.59 ||
 * 2 || 6.02 ||
 * 3 || 6.00 ||
 * 4 || 6.05 ||
 * 5 || 6.05 ||
 * 6 || 6.04 ||
 * 7 || 6.05 ||
 * 8 || 6.05 ||
 * 9 || 6.10 ||
 * 10 || 6.08 ||
 * 11 || 6.05 ||
 * 23 || 6.12 ||
 * 13 || 6.12 ||
 * 14 || 6.13 ||
 * 15 || 6.12 ||

I replaced battery #1 and it began working again. I then went to begin scanning and found the wires that I had soldered yesterday to be disconnected again. I soldered them back together and began scanning with 40.0 V. Every attempt resulted in crashing though. Because of this, I tried scanning without the Piezoelectric Box on. I was able to scan immediately following this. I took the full image which was not very good but I wanted to try zooming in before I changed the tip. I zoomed in to the bottom right corner of this image. This scan was unfortunately horrible. I then changed the tip and turned on the piezoelectric Box. I began scanning with the piezo stack charged with 40.0 V. I was able to scan after this successfully. This scan was not very good and completely blurry. I changed the tip afterwards. The next scan was awful too. I tried zooming into the top right to make sure it wasn't just the scanning parameters. I adjusted the parameters and the image quality improved drastically. I tried zooming in on this image, "AC", and about halfway through the sample bottomed out. I tried approaching again but it did not work and just ended up crashing. 2-1-12AA media type="custom" key="12316602" Now that I am able to zoom in on this image on my own computer, I am able to see the larger amount of noise that I could not see mid scan. There are some features hidden underneath the general haze and noise of the scan. The high amount of noise in the middle shows a clearly bad tip. After zooming in to the bottom right corner and that scan being terrible, I changed the tip.

2-1-12AB media type="custom" key="12316608" This image was purely noisy and awful. There is no definition anywhere in this image. There are small hints to features below the general noise of the scan but there is nothing too convincing in this scan of the tip being good enough to gain atomic resolution. 2-1-12AC media type="custom" key="12316614" This image is quite similar to the one before in that there is no real definition or insight into the surface on either one. There is no atomic resolution and it is clear that nothing on this image resembles any sort of Octanethiol molecules. There are no real hills or valleys in this image and no resemblances of them, even under the general noise that covers the whole image. I need to look for more signs of dull tips to help expedite the process of finding Octanethiol molecules on the surface of the gold. Hopefully I will gain a more adept sense for knowing when to continue scanning or when to change the tip.