Week+of+February+22-26

Week of February 22-26

I have been going into the lab since my previous lab imput for about 2 hours and 15 minutes every wednesday and friday. I haven't had much time to update with the final hardest weeks of swimming, a math project, an english project, and a the science fair, which I was unable to attend. Today I went in the lab for 2 hours and fifteen minutes. Today was my first day in which I am scanning octanethiols. WIth the Au(111) sample in the last couple of weeks I hadn't attained any clear images. I had however taken a single line scan and shot a laser at my sample and got the desired section view graph. The curve was close to the desired curve and it expanded over 6000 angstroms. The graph of the section view is the graph that I selected for my presentation (so it can be viewed under single line scans in the research presentation page). Today in the lab I actually got good images of the octanethiol sample. Becky had stated that it was easier to get images of octanethiol and I agree with this point. I was clearly able to see the octanethiols monolayer on the surface of the gold when I began scanning. I shot the sample with the laser and unintentionally crashed my tip. After this I was not able to get good images of the surface. I am going into the lab next wednesday because on the 26th of February I will be in indiannapolis.

March 3

I went into the lab today and scanned for about 2 and a half hours. I was getting good images and everything was working properly. There was a substantial amount of thermal drift, making it hard to get a whole scan, but I got many good partial scans. I was able to take before and after images of the sample when I shot it with the laser, but there didn't appear to be any change in the how the octanethiols were assembled on the surface. I am going to bring my flash drive with me on Wednesday the tenth to get these images and post some of them.

March 5

Becky was not here today so I did not go into the lab. I am still deciding whether to pursue the science fair in Valpo or do a video stream. I am probably leaning towards doing a video stream.

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