Project+Explanation

__My Project__  The project that I am currently working on has to do with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. For my project I am shooting an Au (111) sample with a 4mW green laser while I scan the surface. My goal in doing this is to create an instrument that can be used by the other members of the lab that I am currently working in. I am trying to create a controlled temperature jump. By using the scanning tunneling microscope I will be able to discern how much the gold expanded and I will be able to evaluate whether shooting the sample with the laser changed the surface of the sample. Once I am able to shoot the laser and be able to get the same amount of expansion of the gold every time my project will go further into nanotechnology. The laser will be used to try to manipulate self assembling monolayers on the surface of the gold. We believe that this will be done by shooting the sample with a laser. By doing this we hope to be able to align the molecules in a way that we can then send a signal across a chain of molecules. Another usage of the laser is for removing "junk" molecules from a surface (if by heating the sample to a certain temperature we know that certain molecules will be removed, we can heat the surface to this temperature, removing the "junk" molecules while not affecting the rest of the sample’s surface).

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