Week+of+Oct+26-30

Week of Oct 26-30

28th of October

I went into the lab for about 2 1/2 hours today and I tried running alot of scans, but I really wasn't getting any quality images. The sample wasn't particularly a great sample, I was having trouble finding an area where I could take full scans so I took many partials. All of the images were somewhat fuzzy and even though it is starting to get cooler I am not seeing any better scans as Annette and Becky said I probably would. I never really got a good tip when I was scanning, but the drift was rather moderate. It really was not effecting the scans that much so atleast that is starting to look better. I am still just hoping for a good tip and when I get it I am going to keep scanning with it until it falls apart (even if this is 4 hours). I asked Becky and Annette about not having a good tip and they said that is just how research goes. Also the sample holder that I use actually creates drift and I don't get as clear of images because the sample has poor electrical contact because it sits on top of the microtherm thin-sheet insulator. I'm interested in if there is anyway we can make a better sample holder.

30th of October

Today I went into the lab for about 2 hours fifteen minutes. Today the scope was more drifty then the on Wednesday, but the tip was slightly better. However, this didn't produce any better images. Because the scope was drifty the image appeared to be stretched and blurred, even though the image was crisper. I had more partial images today than on Wednesday because of the driftiness and when the scope became less drifty I attempted to take images at a smaller size. The typical scan I perform is 2000 angstroms and if I have a better tip I zoom in more. When I zoomed in though the image was very blurry so I changed back to a 2000 angstrom scan window. I shot the laser, but I was unable to find the same area that I scanned before I shot the laser. I tried scanning without the sample being on top of the microtherm thin-sheet insulator and took a single line scan to see how much the gold expanded. The difference was pretty significant (a difference of about 2500 angstroms). IN addition to this the images did not seem to be any less drifty.

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