Well, this is my first shot at blogging. Emily's wanted me to post for so long, we've actually moved past nagging to resignation. Physics-wise, things in Cambridge are going well. I work five days a week, and most of my time lately has been spent on training. I'm required to attend three lectures a week that are supposed to familiarize me with condensed matter research at the lab, and outside of that, I'm pretty much left to my own devices.
The big thing that I've been working on for the last few weeks is cleanroom training. Researchers in the Semiconductor Physics group (SP for short), develop their own semiconductor devices in the cleanroom. So, what I'm being trained to do is take a wafer of GaAs, cut it down to a certain size, and pattern various structures on it, like wires, gates and contacts. These are extremely small: the one I'm currently working on is a wafer chip 1 cm by 1 cm, and I've etched sixteen different devices onto it. So it's very precise work.
I've gone through around 20 hours of training so far, and have another 20 to finish up before the end of term. After that, I'll be fully authorised to work on whatever research project comes my way. (Amusingly, I was given a security card to access the cleanroom in my welcome-pack).
One of the post-docs is taking me through training, and it's interesting to watch how very careful he is with his sample chip. One scratch or ding, even from just setting it down to hard on the counter, can ruin several week's worth of effort. The wafers are grown on site, and cost a ridiculous amount of money to make.
So that's all I'm really doing at the moment, apart from reading, which apparently never ends. I've settled in well at the lab, and I managed to get some nice pictures while the weather was still good.
That's my building on the left. Notice the ducks moving into attack position.
Outside some of the lecture hall is a little museum of physics. This exhibit, which extends around the far corner, is made up of annual pictures of every group of researchers at the Cavendish since 1896.
For example, here's a close-up of the group from 1982:
6 comments:
You should grow a mustache for picture day...and wear a cardigan...
;)
Very cool!
--Deb
That picture is awesome!
Are you becoming Anglofied or something? You spelled "authorised" with an "s." :)
Em- I'm replying to your post on my blog (Sorry Matthew!) Apparently, there are converse stores around here! I actually tried to go to one last week, but it had been turned into a bank. However, by the end of my trip I WILL find a converse store! And I'm thinking about buying Noah some baby ones so he can match his aunt Em and Deb and uncle Matt :)
When I finished typing this post, the spell-check caught that I spelled authorised with an 's', and so of course I had to leave it in there.
The other thing that throws me off is the fact that on British keyboards the 'at' symbol (@) and the double quote (") are in each other's spot.
hehe I caught the same thing, Lauren! And, nice pics. I remember going there. What you're doing sounds more like engineering than physics though.
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