Thank you and Goodbye

Hello,

My last view in the beamline...

So this is my last two days at Diamond. Safe to say, I have enjoyed almost every second... especially when things have worked. However, I still had a very busy last couple of days so...

Thursday I concentrated upon making the track secure. Up until now, I've been using a magnetic mat to hold them down a little more firmly, but this obviously couldn't replace being held down. What was needed was a high-tech, mechanical solution... so naturally I used Velcro. This was not, however, normal Velcro, but industrial strength stuff offered to me by the beamline technician. The glue on the back was incredibly strong, so I was able to use that to hold the magnets firmly in place, whilst experimenting with the 'soft' side as a base.

Otherwise, I spent the day finalising all the documents, such as my report, instruction manual and poster, the latter being sent off to print. This largely involved many pretty pictures and shifting a text box up and down minute distances. All in the name of attractiveness.

...and my last capillaries.

Friday, and my FINAL DAY AT DIAMOND, started peacefully. However, I was told to come to the beamline mid-morning to have a meeting with my supervisor and found a train-shaped cake waiting for me. Baked by my supervisor, it looked wonderful and was delicious and I thank her for it. There was also a gift and card signed by those on my beamline who I've been so lucky to work with.

As I said, though, the last day was still busy, and after eating a slice, I had my Velcro and magnets checked over by an insertion device physicist (who got a slice of cake too for all his help), so I was able to permanently bind them together. The track done, I also cleared up some of my equipment round the lab.

In the afternoon, I was also clearing my desk, but then went into the lab. Partly to finish clearing (I filled a pot of many waste powders I've collected over my weeks at Diamond), but also to load two last capillaries; well, it wouldn't be a last day without doing some. The powders have been through the SQUID and, in such small quantities, are held in the end by a thinner capillary slotted in on top. And guess what? I didn't break ANY whilst preparing them. My training is complete :D

My last view of Diamond.

I'd like to thank everyone for my time at Diamond, including my supervisors, everyone on I11 beamline, the Insertion Device group (for the magnets), comms for their help on the Open Days, all the other placement students and many other scientists and technicians who have helped my train hover. I have had a truly wonderful summer and have learnt so much.

And, of course, thank you to all who have read my blog.

Hover soon (I hope).

Demo Days

Hello,

It has been a far colder, more active this week so far, and my last here at Diamond. The weeks have flown by.


Monday was centred around a practice presentation. In the morning, I reviewed my presentation with my supervisor and was able to pick up a few tips to improve it further. By the afternoon, though, I had a mini audience as I gave the talk, this time incorporating a small demonstration along with. I thank all my audience members, who were the staff on the beamline for their attention and suggestions and support when my truck promptly fell apart. I now know not to strap the superconductors on in a hurry.

That afternoon, I also managed to figure out a way of storing the track, at least temporarily. Wrapping the set-up in foil and cardboard allows it to be kept flat and reduce the magnetic field considerably.

Tuesday morning was spent taking on board these suggestions and improving my poster. As mentioned, science posters are a good, visual way to impart information to many people, but they come with the restrictions of space and needing lots of images. Most my time was cutting down sentence size.

The afternoon was a long session with liquid nitrogen and the new superconductors which arrived over the weekend. This allowed me to set up plenty of trials and even attached more superconductors to the train, though in many cases it over-balanced them. However, I gained this footage, for those who've missed my demonstrations. The beeping is my oxygen monitor.

Wednesday started with me setting up the trains again, ready for the real presentation. The whole kit was carried to Diamond House's meeting room and I set it all out on the table. I did manage to catch most the talks, including ones about terahertz radiation to count electron clusters in the beam, steadying a imaging machine and topological insulators (find out more at diamondlifeblog.tumblr.com/post/92147428772)(apologies for bad explanations).

Unfortunately, I missed one talk, setting trains to cool. My presentation seemed to go down well, and I had 4 floating objects which I cycled through in order to let many people see. As mentioned in my speech, people seem to like physical demonstrations.

That afternoon, I was experimenting with bigger trains, along with 2 of the other placement students. They say a picture paints a thousand words so look!

Type soon!

 

Tracking in Grass

Hello,

This week has revolved around reports, presentations and posters... but of course, I've been making trains hover in between.



Monday I settled into preparing a report and instruction manual for the train. Hopefully, the train will be there for anyone at the beamline to use.

Tuesday, after a morning of poster work, I got out the office and started testing the arrangements to stop the train heading straight off the end of the track; the train can move fairly freely and Betsy could be hurt if she keeps running off the end of the track. In this, the sheep were helpful (yes, really). If they were knocked over, the train had gone a bit far, a good indication through the nitrogen fumes. The train is taking shape now, with grass and more people. Though the grass... sheds rather at the moment. A rather large clean-up operation followed.

Wednesday, however, I went back to presentation work, ready for the presentation next Wednesday. However, Diamond was buzzing as it held its User meeting, a chance for all the users to present their work in talks and posters over the course of two days - proof that I am still getting proper scientific experience. Though I personally like to mix it with labs.

Type soon.

PS. I'm on holiday over the end of the week, but next week, I start my last 5 days at Diamond.

Communicating Physics

Hello,

Picture tweeted by @DiamondLightSou of me demonstrating.

Well, I know some of you will have seen what I've been up to this week.

Wednesday was the Open Day. We set up in the beamline between 9-10, ready to show around visitors the beam room and my hovering train. And when the groups started coming, it was non-stop from there forward. For every group, I was presenting a little bit of information about what superconductors are, why they're important and what I was doing with them. Then I got to show them.  No train has been dunked in liquid nitrogen quite so regularly, but I was able, in the most part to demonstrate my project, even performing an old cliché of slipping a piece of paper underneath whilst levitating.

As a nice surprise, many of the other placement students also popped up around lunchtime to watch me perform the levitation. I was really pleased with the response I got not just from them, but from everyone in general, who seemed to enjoy the day; my project is, after all, an Outreach activity and so if I can interest people, even briefly, that's my job complete.

Though busy, it didn't stop us having a little fun near the end of the day as we tried floating little model people (her name is Betsy) in trucks. The results can be seen in this (speeded up I might add) gif:

  http://makeagif.com/cYaVFf

 

The right 2 have been to heavy to hover, but the left three have all been
in the air. His name is Fred.

Thursday was almost inevitably a lot calmer, but I was happy spending the day making the presentation ready for the end of my placement. It did entail though wandering the whole of the way around the synchrotron ring taking a few pictures. Throughout the day though I was trying the think up ways of mounting my track which...

The arrangement for my track - 4 North poles facing up, surrounded by 6 South
poles facing up.

On Friday, I managed using the arrangement to the right. The North poles down the middle created a high magnetic field track, causing a perfect contour for the superconducting disks to follow. The South poles down both sides hold the North poles close together, preventing them from repelling one another too much; any gaps cause the train to unceremoniously fall. This floated my train so successfully, I had to make cardboard buffers as it flew off the end!

 The rest of the day was spent trying to track down more of the little trains I'm using, designing a full length stretch of track and looking for decorations for the train. After all, it'll look nicer with a bit of grass and a station.  

Other events on Friday included giving an interview about me and my placement for Diamond Comms Dep, hoping to also spread Diamond's fame both within and outside Harwell Campus, and some chocolate being left in our office by some of the other placement students. Thanks guys!

Type soon!
PS. Background picture is the capillary furnace glowing in the beamline (found I'd left some pictures on the camera).

Let's Hover

Hello,

Well, the beamtime may be over, but it just means the train must progress.

A sad non-levitating train, even if steam is coming from its chimney.

Wednesday morning, first thing, I glued up the engine, stinking out the lab with the glue. Had to leave it in the fume cupboard to dry. However, it was ready for an afternoon of testing which... didn't go so well. Turns out the glue wasn't as much as a problem as the bottom warping upon meeting the cold. It was throwing superconductors everywhere.

I did tape it up (seeing as sellotape seems to be the only reliable thing) and managed to get an engine which didn't leak. And didn't levitate. I now blame its weight. I re-glued it to be left over the weekend.

Thursday and Friday I was on holiday because, well, I was fairly tired by this point. 10 day week and all.

Monday morning, though, I was  back and ready to try again. After a quick meeting with a insertion device scientist (he deals in many magnets), we decided to try stronger magnets and different arrangements. The samarium cobalt magnets were replaced first by neodymium iron boron magnets and then by one of the largest permanent magnets I'd seen. It was about the size of  half a brick.

However, this turned out to be too powerful and couldn't even hover a single superconductor disk (a feat I've managed before. This is due to superconductors having a critical magnetic field. Like the critical temperature, once above this, the superconductor can no longer superconductor; it becomes an expensive black disk. The neodymium magnets did provide lift on the disk... but the magnetic field peaked so dramatically, it was hard to balance the disk at a height of about 10 cm.

So we were back with the samarium cobalt magnets... and a non-levitating train.

So, with a public viewing looming, Tuesday morning I was off to the shops. Yes, that's right, I got to spend 2 hours going around toy shops for trains, cars and skateboards (because hoverboards would be awesome too). And look what I manged Tuesday afternoon:

OH YES!!!

Type soon!

PS. All magnets used are those leftover from the building of the beamline. They help direct the beam and maintain its energy.

PPS. I will hopefully be adding to the picture collection here and on Twitter (@AdamasRos) 

Culham, Trains and Nightime Beamtime.

Hello,

I do not apologise for the length of this post as it matches this weekend. Working at Diamond is never monotonous.

A model of the inside of JET, the torus tokamak. The plasma is held within the kidney
shaped areas by magnets... and superconductors play their role!

On Thursday morning, I came back to stuffing quartz wool and YBCO salts into open capillaries. By the end, I had manged to fill and mount one, which I felt was quite an achievement. The afternoon, however, I was off to Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. There, they have the world's largest tokamak. With it, they are able to create a plasma out of heavier isotopes of hydrogen (a hydrogen atom with extra neutrons). With it, they are hoping to help find a clean and abundant power source for the future, along with the developing remote handling systems like MASCOT (who looks so like Wall-e). If you want to know more, visit http://www.ccfe.ac.uk/

Friday, however, was back to the trains. Some more empty engine shells had arrived, so I spent my morning patching up wholes and trying them with the superconductors. No joy... yet... The afternoon, I finished creating a spare gas cell capillary because...

Saturday was BEAMTIME! That morning, we attached and aligned the gas cell and hooked it up to the oxygen flow for the gas to flow through. The experiment involved heating the capillary up using a hot air blower and watching for changes.

Leaving it there for several hours, however, didn't actually seem to do much, so we began loading normal capillary (hard as my salts had clumped a little) and set up a low pressure gas experiment, pumping in oxygen. We watched it heat and began writing scripts for overnight dwelling... until the capillary disappeared. As it was getting late at this point, we left it to get some sleep so we were prepared for...

The beamroom at night... not actually that different from day, except
for the peacefulness.

More beamtime Sunday. This turned into a long day. Since the YBCO had to be loaded into really thin capillaries (it absorbs the radiation well), we put this on the back burner so to speak and moved onto another compound. This one, we were able fill into larger capillaries and pump He through in the hope that it could capture some of it. Slowly increasing the pressure, we hoped to see a change in the diffraction pattern.

My little engine, awaiting the judgement by nitrogen.

Whilst analysing these results, we repeated the experiment, but using Oxygen, to try to show whether the He had changed the crystal more than the beam did. To further our evidence, we followed this up with a different compound which shouldn't react with the He at all. With so many experiments and so much capillary heating, we eventually left the beamline at 1.30AM! Diamond at night is so quiet!

Monday morning, (and I do mean 9am-no liein) we came down to our results... only to find the computer script had failed to take the scans! Sad times, but I was able to manually perform the experiment and follow it up with a repetition of the He experiments in the hope of clearer results. I'm now able to mount the samples, lockup the beam room and set scans going.

The afternoon, though, was back to the train and my conclusion was superglue can't cope with liquid nitrogen... oh well. Needless to say, there were many leaks. And 3 broken magnets. Oops.

So to Tuesday, the order of the day was glues. I created samplers of glues and left them to dry over lunch so later in the afternoon I could try them in the liquid nitrogen. They seemed to work so tomorrow, my train is about to get coated!

Type soon!

  PS. It wasn't all work. I've learnt 2 new board games and eaten many biscuits 
whilst waiting for things to heat and pattern emerge.

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!

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!

Out of Mortar, Into the Furnace

Hello,


The past few days have been fairly warm across my area of the UK. And, as a typical British person, I must complain about its timing. Just when I have to share a lab with a furnace.

On Tuesday, it was decided that it would be a good opportunity for me to get to know the tube furnace I'll be baking the superconductor in. As previous readers know, this experienced a minor set-back last week when my previous attempt at YBCO sort of... well... micro-exploded in there. Thus, when I came to having a go at practical trials after reading the instruction booklet, I found that the inside was covered in black, partially burnt nitrate mix. Eww...

Luckily, my beamline manager gave me a hand at clearing it out, using towels and solvents. Being nitrates, we also got to use dust masks... and I realised I've never had to use one before. Yes, I tried to put it on sideways first attempt.

The solvents needed time to dry though, so I came back to it in the afternoon and set it on a quick heating cycle. Just up to 250 degrees Celsius at 5 degrees a minutes and then hold for half an hour. This seems trivial, especially when you think some ovens can do that, but simple practice allowed me to monitor the cooldown rate too.

While this was heating, I was also able to prepare miniature glass vials of Yttrium Oxide, ready for synthesis. We're still waiting on the copper oxide.

The outside of Diamond. The large canister is filled with Liquid Nitrogen... though I don't think I'll be using all of that!

This had arrived by Wednesday, so that morning I was able to start grinding up all the salts together to create my first batch of superconductor using the Oxides. And it didn't turn to paste. Instead, it was a dusty, clay-coloured substance, which I was able to press into a mini pellets of superconductor and stick in the oven.

I was also able to make a second boat of mixture, but this one without pressing. Why? Because we're still experimenting with the process of making the superconductor; we're trying several techniques to see which works best. Science can sometimes be trial and error.

While it was cooking, I prepared two boats of salts to cook tomorrow. I also tried to make a capillary of the nitrate mix... and I tried again... well, maybe another day. *sigh* Before the end of the day, I took out the second boat of unpressed salts, reground, pelleted and replaced it. Just to see what happens.

To the left, you can see the bridge that allows access to Diamond. It is slightly like entering a spaceship, I won't lie.

I came in on Thursday to find the furnace hadn't cut out after ten hours like I thought I'd set it. I blame it on fiddling about with the settings after it had started. Never mind, I let the superconductor cool and was able to load the new boats in and set them off, this time under a flow of oxygen. And yes, I got to make pretty warning signs. I then mixed up two new boats for Friday's firing. 

Once cool, I ground up a little of the second superconductor to place in a capillary... Second attempt lucky. In between this, I was able to sneak into the beamline to watch a new experiment being set up. And I hope to learn more.

My final task was to withdraw one of the boats to regrind and pelleted before replacing. Every angle covered. Now I must hope the furnace switches off over night. Not least, because it makes the lab pretty warm. Well, I am setting it to 930 degrees C.

Type soon. 

Sort of Synthesising

Hello,

On Thursday, the view of my day was mainly this:

This is the view from my desk in Diamond. As you can see, I'm actually in the Synchrotron building itself, with the walkway outside. From there, you can look down onto the beamline control and hutches or across at the slabs of concrete that provide the shielding around the main beam circuit (see below). Some days, you can even watch the built-in crane lift the slabs as engineers get underneath.
 
I was mainly researching Thursday, checking phase patterns and the absorption of my superconductor if it was put in the beamline - too absorbing and there's little point in placing it in the beamline as there wouldn't be a diffraction pattern. However, I also had two training sessions so I can use all types of fire extinguishers and the library at Harwell campus. So, all pretty useful skills.

Friday, though, I was back in the lab, actually synthesising superconductor. Or at least trying too.

Using the balance was a skill in itself, especially since I'm trying to measure quantities to three decimal places. The gusts in the fume cabinet have a large effect at this level of precision. The scales have their own doors to exclude the draught.

I then grind the salts together into a powder... which is where it started to go a bit wrong. I mentioned that Yttrium Nitrate and Copper Nitrate absorbs water in the air. Well, soon I had a paste instead of a powder. Trying to make this into an even colour is more challenging and so it took more mixing than expected. But at least it was a very nice blue.

It then went in the tube furnace at 850 degrees Celsius with the oxygen cylinder hooked up. And it stayed there for almost a whole minute.

By then, it was bubbling and spitting everywhere. It was quickly pulled out before any real damage was down. Disappointing, but part of science; things rarely go to plan, but that's how things are discovered.

In light of this, we've (my supervisor and I) have decided to change the starting materials. I'm now going to try Yttrium Oxide, Barium Carbonate and Copper Oxide. 

Above the beamline. Everything yellow contains lead shielding.

The Oxides hadn't arrived by Monday, but that didn't mean the day went to waste. I spent the morning filling two 0.3 mm capillaries with Barium Nitrate and Barium Carbonate. Because I'm now in a place which has a lot of Barium Carbonate sitting around. As can happen. This is purely for interest's sake, but obtaining results from anything I've made on the beamline would be pretty awesome. And now...

Capillary 4  Ros 4

It would appear practice does make... a draw at least.

The afternoon I decided to get a head-start on the new synthesis process by measuring out all the Barium Carbonate. At the end of the day, I left 11 glass vials of BaCO3 sitting on the side, ready and waiting. And the scales only played up once! (they autocalibrated).

Type soon!