Toys and Presentations

Hello,

Well, after the business of last week, things were much calmer this week, not least because we kicked it all off with a bank holiday. And rain.

Betsy now has spare wagons.

So by Tuesday, I was ready to go. I began by chasing up some more trains, ready as spares in case any of the trains get damaged along the way. Being dunked in liquid nitrogen isn't a usual environment after all. I also went about procuring some grass mats from a Modelling shop and deciding on other characters and decorations.

Aside from this, I began work on an instruction manual. The aim is that anyone (with common sense) can get out and use the train on Open Days (which Diamond host fairly often). Thus, it is handy to have a quick start guide.

During the afternoon, I began to use the software Origin to sort out the graphs I want to use. And during this, I found some interesting properties in some of the data I collected.

To do work, I had to tidy my desk. I had too many toys lying around.
And with the arrival of more, it got worse.

I continued this task over to Wednesday. However, it was broken up by attending some presentations by some of the other placement students. The variety of the placement projects make this a very worth while and interesting session and I come away knowing a lot more about SAX (small angle X-ray imaging) and the magnetic modelling and experiments occurring elsewhere around the beamline. I thank all three students for this.


Thursday I went about preparing my own presentation, showing a rough draft to my supervisor. If you are preparing a presentation, I recommend getting someone else to check it over with you, as things may not be as clear as you would like them to be. I went away with several suggestions. I'm doing this alongside a report and a poster so all these documents are keeping me busy as I wait for parts to start appearing.

Type soon!

A Variety of Skills

Hello,

The SQUID samples require less material and are MUCH
easier to load - not a toothbrush in sight.

By Friday, I was coming to the end of my time with the SQUID, but managed to get some interesting results from my 9th piece... and it's looking good. However, I've discovered that placing a small sample under 1 T can produce some... interesting and lasting effects. Luckily, I shouldn't get near that with my track.

While the final tests on that were on-going, I attended an Public Engagement Workshop; it's always incredibly to spread the word of science and let people know exactly what we scientists get up to. You can judge how I do with this blog.

The afternoon, I loaded an YBCO capillary ready for some possible sneaky beamtime next week (it's so useful to compare results, with the others) and mixed up some salts in case I suddenly need to bake a new sample.

Over the weekend I had a very long night to watch the Didcot cooling towers come down. A historic moment indeed.

Monday was a slow start, mainly because my bus was very late (ah, roadworks). However, I then got into a Skills session on producing a scientific poster, a good, visual way to display scientific research. If you don't like reading complicated papers, maybe try looking over posters instead. It was followed by a talk from Prospect, a Union focused on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical jobs (STEM). It was interesting to see what they thought the current issues facing scientists were.

All doors to the beam rooms have a traffic light
system to show when you can enter. Red is
firmly stay out.

The afternoon, though, I got back to my science as I cracked out the Liquid Nitrogen again to try hovering a superconductor over my track. And I manage it with both a pre-made disk AND the sample I made the end of last week (Yay!). However, they both warm up rather quickly and can't yet support the heavier train.

Things seems to be taking shape by Tuesday, as I tried to finalise the track design and help the train engine retain the coolness. Huge thanks to the Beamline technician, who hollowed out my engine to form a Nitrogen reservoir and attached the superconductor to the bottom. It was a shame that the train still seems to be heavy and the superconductor aren't quite in cold enough yet. Now trying to source a hollow plastic shell of an engine.
 
Also that day, I attended a very good lecture by Professor Bartolini. It was on the Physics of the Accelerator and explained a lot about the purpose of the dipole and quadrupole magnets to focus the beam. It was interesting to hear about some of the inner workings of the beamline that produces the radiation we use.  

Type soon!

Tongs anyone?

Hello,

A mounted capillary

So, I came in on Tuesday certain of how to use the SQUID machine and thus wasted no time in setting a new cycle going and went to have chat with my supervisor about some new data I've have - yesterday evening, it seems, there was time for a new capillary of my salt mix to be placed in the beamline and scans taken of it heating and cooling. The results are... interesting. They bear little resemblance to my other samples, but they do at least show why the oxygen and air are necessary; a sealed capillary can't make YBCO.

Coming back to my scans though proved a minor disaster. It would seem that even a place as high-tech as Diamond has computer issues and unfortunately a crashed computer can't make scans. Waiting for IT support, I set another boat of superconductor cooking, this time in the box furnace.

By mid-afternoon, I was able to set new scans going and had a good time looking over the data I'd got. It would seem the salt capillary underwent a near-reversible process.

An unmounted capillary.

 Wednesday was spent on the beamline computers (where they have some very good graphical software) analysing all the X-ray data for the various samples I now have. It's certainly an interesting story of my successes and failures, and the levitating sample sticks out like a sore thumb in terms of its scan.

Finally, I was also trying to find a non-magnetic set of tweezers or tongs over 12" long. If anyone knows where I can get these, PLEASE COMMENT!! 

Thursday has allowed me to split my time 3 ways. Firstly, I'm setting the SQUID on many long-period scans. Secondly, I had the privilege of sitting in the post-doc presentations about their research. This ranged from geometry to star dust to iron crystals and showed the diversity of research around.

Finally, I was back in my homely lab, where I was filling capillaries, like the one shown below, for a beamline experiment (its not my experiment so I need to find out precisely what they're for). These weren't sealed like the one above, but stuffed with quartz wool ready for gas to be pumped through them.
.

Type soon!

Playing with Fi-- Liquid Nitrogen

Hello,

It would seem the temperature isn't about to settle down at any point in the next few days, as I've melted, frozen and melted again over the past week. And people mock when I say I don't know what to wear.

Wednesday was a day of preparation as there is the possibility of more of my samples undergoing x-ray diffraction over the weekend due to a low demand rapid access day (a day for quick sample testing and catch-up for those users who experiments have been blighted by beam problems). This did mean I was stuck in the lab most the day, preparing these samples, as I'm currently up to 7 samples of superconductor. And below you can see the kit I used to make the 8th.

The pestle and mortar used to mixed the salts. Before heating, they must be well grounded together to become a uniform clay-like colour. The white dishes are disposable weighboats used for the Copper Oxide and to the left you can see a toothbrush left over from capillary loading, since the same equipment is used.

Because of this, Thursday started the same and would have appeared to continue the same. This was particularly uncomfortable as the furnaces had not dipped below 200 degrees for over 36 hours by this point. It would seem I was responsible for the heatwave.

However, in the afternoon, my supervisor and the work experience student decided that it would be fun to play... I mean, seriously experiment with liquid nitrogen. So I left the baking lab to clearing ice off petri-dishes.

At first, we just tried to hover a magnet over a pre-made disk, which worked well of course. In some ways, it was inevitable that such high beginnings could not be carried through to my own experimental samples, since I had tried a variety of ways to make them, most which would never work.

Just as I was beginning to worry, though, there was a glimmer of hope as a small black slab I'd made supported a magnet! It wasn't as high as the professionally made piece, but I still call victory.

A view into the furnace, which glows red hot once above approximately 700 degrees. Any closer than that and I'd burn my fingers.

Friday was a day off as I was persuaded to go to London. ... Thankfully, my friend had a pool.

Monday was spent testing my samples with a new piece of kit... the SQUID (Superconducting QUantum Interference Device). This allows me to measure the magnetic moment whilst cooling and heating the samples from as low as 10K (-263 degrees) and varying the magnetic field. This provides a good idea as to whether I have superconducting material, giving a pretty graph to prove it. And do I? Well, early days, but the one superconductor I didn't try on Thursday (no. 8 was cooling still at that time) did look slightly promising... fingers crossed.

Type soon!