November+8-9

November 8th:

Today, Valerie had the portable AFM with her at Marian, where she was giving a demonstration. So, I worked on the laser, soldering several more connections in the wire box. The laser is an on-off project because 1) scanning is more important, 2) I can scan more independently that I can work on the laser, and 3) soon, we will need to use Annette's scope with the laser, as the portable will not work due to the positioning required. So for now, scanning is the priority.

When Valerie returned with the AFM, i had finished soldering and set up the AFM. I scanned a piece of Au(III) bombarded for a week. Unfortunately, the exposed side was very small, and only on the edge of the gold. As I usually scan more towards the middle of the sample, I moved closer to the edge, but was not right on it. Therefore, the scanned areas were not completely exposed.



This sample was on a sample of Polonium-210, an alpha emitter. The way the dish is set up to hold the sample, with half covered and half exposed, was off a little for this sample. The piece of metal that covers the sample was too far over the sample, so that only a little was exposed, and the exposed area was right on the edge. I prefer not to scan the edge, due to the gold being very damaged due to cutting and handling. Also, images of unexposed gold are useful as well. Therefore, I just scanned in the center, an area that was totally covered. Because of the coverage, we can't expect to see much in the form of disruption. However, if the area were exposed, we would hope to see isolated areas of complete disruption, consistent with an impact. Although we aren't exactly sure what the alpha particle does when it impacts, we are pretty sure that it leaves some sort of impact. So, if there is no anomaly in the surface, we take it to be just clean Au(III). With the images, there seemed to be a great deal of interference, although it was almost surely from the the microscope itself. The scan head, as I realized on Tuesday, was off-kilter, and slanted. Because it was moved a lot recently, this isn't all that surprising. However, I didn't catch the slant until Tuesday, when my images were slanted at a very high angle.

November 9th: Becky was in a meeting, so I just scanned the same sample from yesterday, the 8th. It was a Polonium-210 exposed Au(III), exposed for a full week. I realized today that the scan head was at an angle due to its repeated movement, to and from the lab. However, i fixed this with a quick readjust and continued to scan. Other than that, the scanning was pretty normal. The lines did return, and in some images, there will be changes in clarity and color, due to my changing the z-range and I- and P-gains mid-scan.