Week+of+9-10-2012

9-10-12 I began the day by scanning C-60 on Gold. My first image, AA, had an area of 8133.23 A, and had an A/D gain of 4. I scanned this region a second time after adjusting for drift to try to get a better image of it. AA was a fairly blurry image. There are some faint features but most of the image is not well defined AB was of the same region. It was not much better. I changed the tip afterwards. The next tip was probably even worse. I was not able to get any images with that tip and after several scanning attempts with it. it was time to go. 9-11-12 I began the day scanning with Guillermo, who is an undergraduate who started doing research in the Kandel lab this last spring. We were scanning a new sample of C-60 on Au(111) that Matt prepared. Before scanning, Matt informed me that the sample he prepared was of questionable quality and that if we should not be disappointed if we did not get any results. AO- 8134.16 Å. A/D: 2- This was only a partial image because it was very poor. I moved the X and Y offsets to try to avoid the hills of this image. There is nothing really to this image. it was caused by a horrible tip. I probably should have changed the tip following the image. AP- 8134.16 Å A/D: 2- This image was a little bit flatter. However, it was still fairly poor. This image confirmed my assumption about the tip. I changed the tip afterwards to try to alleviate the streaks and noise. AQ- 8134.47 Å A/D: 4- This scan was not very flat. I moved the X and Y offsets up and to the left and began another scan. There were no real features in this image and no evident C-60 here. AR- 8134.47 Å, A/D: 4- Unfortunately, this scan was even worse than the one before. I tried several times to move the X and Y offsets around but was unable to find any decent area worth scanning. The quality of the tip and most likely the poor quality of the sample are to blame for these horrible scans.

Also, the few somewhat reasonable scans were not able to be finished because the tip would drift about halfway through every image and the partial scans were not good enough to save because they were just mostly noise.