Week+of+11-10+and+11-11

11-10-11 Today I came in and had to set up the STM and computer because Natalie had to use them outside of the lab again. After this, I checked the voltage of the batteries inside the piezoelectric power supply box to see which one of the batteries was causing the LED screen to work improperly. Number || Voltage Amount || From gathering this knowledge, it was clear which battery was preventing the LED screen from working properly. I replaced battery number one with a new 9-volt batter. After this, the LED screen began working again and I was able to use the box again. After I finished putting everything back, I began scanning. This was at 4:35 pm. My first scan, "AA", was decent. I zoomed in to the middle region of it to scan my next region. "AB" was not very good so I changed the tip afterwards. The scan following this was so bad that I did not finish taking it and changed the tip again. I was unable to get another decent image with the next tip and after that trial it was already time to go. 11-10-11AA media type="custom" key="11263248" This image was not very defined but also was not at a close enough level to tell if it was a lack of definition caused by a poor tip or just by the large scanning area. 11-10-11AB media type="custom" key="11263276" There was very little definition in this image and a large amount of noise that clearly showed a poor tip.
 * Battery
 * < 1 ||< 4.85 ||
 * < 2 ||< 7.35 ||
 * < 3 ||< 7.37 ||
 * < 4 ||< 7.37 ||
 * < 5 ||< 7.37 ||
 * < 6 ||< 7.38 ||
 * < 7 ||< 7.36 ||
 * < 8 ||< 7.38 ||
 * < 9 ||< 7.39 ||
 * < 10 ||< 7.39 ||
 * < 11 ||< 7.35 ||
 * < 12 ||< 7.35 ||
 * < 13 ||< 7.30 ||
 * < 14 ||< 7.38 ||
 * < 15 ||< 7.24 ||

11-11-11 I came in today and began scanning the same sample of Octanethiol on Au(111) from yesterday. The STM was not working properly. I cleaned it then tried to approach again and this did not work. I changed the tip and cleaned the apparatus again and then once more tried to approach. This time it worked. The first scan was not very good. It clearly showed a bad tip and a lot of noise so I stopped the scan halfway through and changed the tip. The next scan was slightly better but it was still evident that there was a poor tip. I changed the tip after fully scanning "AA". This next image, "AB", was much better than the previous ones. I zoomed in to the left side in the middle region of this image for my next scan. "AC" was not very good and it was very blurry and noisy. I changed the tip after this scan. Once more, this next image showed an atrocious tip and I stopped it a little over halfway through the scan and changed the tip. The next image, "AD", was significantly better than any image before it. It had a large amount of features. I zoomed in to the region on the left side in the crater-like region. This next image, "AE", seemed good enough to shoot the laser at. I brought the voltage of the piezo stack from 45.0 V to 5.0 V and then shot the laser for 60 seconds. I let the sample cool for five minutes. After the sample cooled, I brought the voltage of the piezostack back up to 45.0 V and began scanning. It was clear from the structure and features of the after image that the after image was not a scan of the same region as the before image. It is possible that I may have bumped something that could have moved the sample holder slightly while I was operating the laser. Overall, the images today were pretty decent. Changing the tips quickly and proactively helped alot with the acquisation of more higher quality images. 11-11-11AA media type="custom" key="11309362" This image showed several features but not very good definition. Much of the image was blurry and did not provide me with any important insight into the image. I changed the tip after this. 11-11-11AB media type="custom" key="11309372" This image showed a pretty good amount of images but a low amount of definition. However, it was difficult to tell if this lack of definition was caused by the tip or by the parameters I scanned this image with, which were not well suited for scanning for definition of features. 11-11-11AC media type="custom" key="11309376" This image answered the question of the previous image regarding the quality of the tip. There were certainly features in this image but there was not a high enough amount of definition to take anything away from this image. I changed the tip after. 11-11-11AD media type="custom" key="11309386" This image showed a very high number of features, both valleys and hills. I zoomed in to the upper part on the left side of the largest, innermost region. There is not much definition here but it is not clear whether this is caused by the scanning parameters or by the tip. 11-11-11AE media type="custom" key="11309390" This image shows that the tip was actually a good tip. There are plenty of defined features throughout this image. The diagonal lines that cross the image could possibly be indicative of Octanethiol but I cannot be sure about this. Since this image was well defined and had high quality features, I shot the laser at it (details above). 11-11-11AF media type="custom" key="11309392" After shooting the laser, I believe I may have done something that might have moved the sample holder slightly. This image does not appear to be in the same region as the before image. There are no recognizable features between the two of the images. This image also showed these diagonal lines. These could also be Octanethiol lines but I cannot be sure.